Piece of Parchment
by moonlightavenger
Summary: Cadance discovers a strange letter sent to King Sombra by someone she didn't know existed, from a nation that never existed. The search for answers sends her and Twilight, along with their friends, on a journey to uncover certain secrets of the past, only to realize that secrets abound in the present and are put at odds with very powerful ponies. This is an Alternate Universe.
1. Mysterious Letter

The library in the Crystal Empire's palace could get dark after the sun had set, and that was a good thing for a pony trying to inconspicuously study particularly obscure pieces of parchment or ancient books. Even if said pony happened to be the owner the palace in which said library was located. That notwithstanding the peculiar thing about that library was that it contained a special vault designed to keep dangerous magical artifacts including all sorts of scrolls, and particularly the ones which held secrets of the arcane.

As such, all documents within that vault would be reviewed by respected members of the Mage's Guild which included Princess Luna and none other than Princess Celestia herself, both recognized as two of the greatest authorities in the field given their experience both studying and teaching magic. All others were expected to have similar levels of understanding on the subject so one could expect that when one of them said that something was dangerous, it was dangerous.

Following their appraisal, these documents would always be marked 'special interest', and then as 'open access', 'restricted access', 'forbidden', 'dangerous' and other relevant and ominous categories; finally, to be stored in one of these vaults.

Cadance wasn't a bad pony. She understood why some things shouldn't be so much as touched in such a dangerous world where certain magical artifacts could make a common, normal, nice pony into an evil monster filled with all sorts of powers and unrestrained base desires. She certainly knew of dangerous schools of magic which thrived on causing pain, disease, generalized misery and death, and she wanted nothing with those energies near her natural love-oriented magic.

That way she wasn't interested in the forbidden magic and knowledge that her aunts sent her for safe-guarding in the vault. She understood the objective in this strategy too: spread the dangerous things so that they are easier to manage and wouldn't all fall into the wrong hooves if one such vault would be breached. This was actually an honor. After all, in Cadance's eyes it showed that her aunts considered her to be reliable and experienced enough to deal with such responsibility.

Well, for one Twilight's palace didn't have such things for safeguarding. And this felt right, after all Cadance was older and more experienced than Twilight was.

Those thoughts aside, what of an unmarked document she had found in the vault? Somehow it had found its way into the vault and that probably meant it was supposed to have been verified by somepony but got lost and ended up in the same shipment as the identified items.

She thought about it for a second… A potentially dangerous document that hadn't been studied by her aunts or any of their many delegates for such matters? Maybe it hadn't been identified and categorized simply because it wasn't dangerous? But then why would it have found its way into the vault? At the same time what she had on her hooves was exciting! A brand-new discovery. As far as her aunts, Twilight, and all the guilds and societies in Equestria were aware this document simply didn't exist, and she was the only one who knew of it.

Or it was simply a common, harmless piece of parchment that got into the vault by mistake. The fact that it wasn't the typical vegetable paper might mean something… Either way Cadance felt confident in her ability to deal with anything she might find in it. Up to the task and willing to prove herself. Well, come on… It seemed to be a simple letter and nothing more. Not even one those scrolls that assist you in performing complex spells.

It had found its way towards her hooves, innocently enough while she was in that secluded area of the library checking the ward spells that kept the vault secure and, had it been breached would alert ponies and other creatures all over Equestria, from herself to the Crystal Empire's local guard, to her aunts themselves. That put Cadance in the privileged position where she could examine that document without a giant amount of paperwork and permissions in a very bureaucratic process that could stop in any of the steps involved. She wasn't about to lose this opportunity.

No need to inform her aunts just yet either… She would understand what that thing was and make sure that it wasn't dangerous. Thus, sitting behind a cyan crystal desk, by candlelight the pink alicorn princess was hunched over the old piece of parchment preserved inside the magical crystalline sheets she put it in. The reflecting light made it a little harder to read, but that was the only way to look at it without it crumbling before her eyes. It seemed very old and, as such fragile. It was never meant to last.

It was a single letter sent to none other than King Sombra by an Emperor Gregor of 'The Holy Griffon Empire'. The problem with that was: King Sombra trading letters with some griffon monarch? Whatever was this 'Griffon Empire'? And what was so holy about it? She had never read about it in any of the many history books she's studied in her princessly career. What the hay was going on?

But certainly, even more curious than the recipient, the author, or even its age was the content of this letter. It was written in an old language that wasn't spoken anymore, a very formal version of her time's Griffonese which wasn't itself a very well known and widely used language to begin with since the usual language of her time was the Common Equestrian.

But one of the things Princess Celestia insisted that Cadance should be proficient at was, at least understanding several of the languages used in their world. So she did her best to translate the letter as she read.

"_Hails to you, King Sombra of the Frozen North._

_Firstly, it is with sincere admiration and the greatest respect that We acknowledge the most recent conquests achieved by Your Majesty. May history remember what was of the tribes who stood against the Great King of The North and know that The Holy Empire of Griffonia stood at His side._

_Now, on to matters at hand. We are grateful for the records Your Majesty has so promptly shipped to our great nation of Griffonia. They have, as We promised been invaluable to our astronomers._

_The results of their inquiries are thus:_

_1\. __While the Sun would infallibly rise and set at predictable time intervals respective to time of the year so too would the Moon. However, as of the late decade such has not been the case, with gross variation._

_2\. __As Your Majesty has inquired in Your letter the mean temperature of the days has been slowly, but steadily and predictably rising. Additionally, within the same time frame when recorded time of sunrise and sunset showed discrepancies._

_3\. __The afore-mentioned rise of the mean temperature of days is increasing in rate by the day._

_We find that concerning and with that mentioned We can assure Your Majesty with the greatest levels of certainty that the night sky above Our nation does resemble a lightless void instead of the typical starry and moonlit skies of not so long ago. As Your Majesty has mentioned, the change was abrupt and has greatly aggravated the general populace._

_At first thought, as mentioned by Griffonia's science-oriented citizens such discrepancies are, indisputably chronologically associated with the arrival, and defeat of the so-called Mad God. While We are aware that Your Majesty cannot be held responsible for such, We fear the denizens of Equestria have taken much too long to deal with the threat he posed and what irreparable damage may have been done._

_We are aware of the present fractured state of the Equestrian Republic, but earlier this decade, while in official communication with Equestria's Mage's Guild We have been assured by the Archmage himself that their responsibility to the entire world was unchanged in respect to providing the life-giving sunlight and the respite of the night and that nothing had changed._

_Aware of the contradiction posed, We have again contacted the Archmage via a very trusted and efficient messenger. He has been assured by the same Archmage that still things were under control. The dishonesty is patently obvious to Our eyes._

_We have been advised by common sense and by Our schooled advisors that this situation warrants immediate attention and, in the same manner Our military advisors have called this an insidious, underhanded and cowardly act of war on the part of Equestria._

_While it must be mentioned that We do not hold ill-faith against Your Majesty given your forces' inability to reach Equestria's original heartland in practical time, We conclude this by informing Your Majesty that on the morn following this letter's dispatch the First Airborne Army of Griffonia shall be deployed under the command of Captain General Blacktallon._

_He is expected to personally meet with the Archmage and understand what the details of the situation are. Following that, he is to deal with it as he sees fit with Our complete confidence and authority._

_Thus said Gregor, Holy Emperor of the Griffon."_

Cadance raised her eyes from the preserved parchment lifting her head and staring confusingly at nothing in particular. "Seriously, what the hay?"

Once again she scanned the document as though she might have missed something. Apparently, she hadn't, but to her recollection not only was Princess Celestia responsible for the Sun, and Princess Luna for the Moon some time _before_ Discord was turned to stone, but there were no griffon invasions at that time. Well, at least, she knew what Griffonia was… Certainly never called a 'holy empire' though.

He could only be talking about Discord when referring to this 'Mad God'. Maybe he would know something about this, but he wasn't exactly a trustworthy source of information.

What about these variations in sunrise and sunset? Why did they start? Why did they end? They were not happening at the present: Equestria's Sun and Moon were like clocks. If anything the princesses will usually stop anything to care for the heavens. Temperature rising? What?

Common sense would say that it was because the unicorns were messing up the process since it drained their magic, but that wouldn't be right: the letter said that the unicorns were dealing fine with the Sun and the Moon as confirmed by the unicorns! Not to mention that Princess Celestia was supposed to be responsible for that already.

Did they lie to this griffon emperor? Did the griffon lie to King Sombra? Why was this griffon talking to King Sombra to begin with? Shouldn't his letter have mentioned Princess Celestia? Maybe she was too young, but still, records said that she and Luna were crowned immediately at their arrival. Or, at least very shortly after. Which is something else Cadance never truly understood, but that was beside the point now. Curious how these details, when given attention often made the jigsaw that is Equestria's history look awkward.

Like most equestrians Cadance assumed that the confusing timelines and details were a result of the mess Discord had created.

But this letter specifically contradicted several things Cadance took for certain. Add to that the weird line about the night resembling a black void. Did he mean there were no stars? No moon? That made no sense.

Suddenly the magical lamps that would normally be lighting the library if she wasn't almost hiding there were alighted and flooded the whole place in clear, blinding light to her dark-attuned eyes. Cadance squeaked and almost let the preserved document fall to the floor. Fortunately, she instinctively held it in her telekinetic grasp and let it rest safely on the desk.

"Cadance?" Shining Armor came out from behind a large bookcase carrying Flurry Heart on his back. "What are you doing?"

"I'm having a heart attack." Her magic carried her crown back to her head while she complained.

"Sorry." He approached and the baby in his back called for mama. "Well, you've been here a while, and it's time for bed. We were worried."

"I'm sorry. I found something weird. It seems King Sombra was talking to some griffon emperor about something wrong going on with the Sun." Cadance had her eyes shut as she hoof-massaged her temples and explained, then lightly tapped the document's crystal protective encasing with a golden shoe. "But it's mentioning events that contradict our own records."

"Are you sure?" He looked at the document and then at her. "Maybe the griffon was lying to King Sombra? Or vice-versa."

"Hum… That could be." She admitted. And if the griffon was lying about the problems with the sun and temperatures, he could be lying about his invading army and that would make sense. Now that she thought of it, Princess Celestia never liked griffons… Maybe the ones from her time weren't very trustworthy?

"Sombra seems to have sent him records made in the Frozen North, which seemed to independently verify the ones in Griffonia. And both seem to disagree with Equestria's records of the time." Her hoof massaged her chin. "Though I'd have to actually see the records in the Canterlot Archives because there is the possibility that even if the letters are wrong about the Sun being under the unicorns' command, the Sun and Moon could have been acting weird."

An eyebrow rose in her forehead. "Why only in that decade, though? Probably because of Discord. But, why would he be making it hotter? It's just weird. Maybe this all happened right after his arrival? No, that can't be: Discord didn't stay for a decade. Something doesn't sit right in this whole story."

"Cadance?" Shining Armor called her, and Flurry made her needy baby noises that the youngling was convinced were supposed to enchant her mother into giving her attention. "Come to bed? You can see about this tomorrow."

"I suppose you're right. I just have to make sure that I understood and translated this correctly, because- Oooow!" She yelped painfully as something pulled on her ear. "Shining!"

"It wasn't me!" He promptly defended himself, while Flurry Heart vehemently demanded her attention with outstretched little hooves and angry baby noises. Having failed the attention seeking baby-talk, a persuasive use of telec… Teleken… 'Moving things with horn-magic' usually brought her mother back to her senses. And, she knew mom didn't like her using such harsh language, but it was mommy's fault for failing to give her attention!

"You know what?" Cadance finally looked over the parchment and then at her husband and child. "This looks like a lot of boring work."

"So, you'll let go of it?" His head bobbed a little to the side.

"No! I'll go see Twilight tomorrow morning!" She smiled happily.

Soon after waking in the next morning, after her early day duties were performed Cadance rushed to the 'mirror room'. It was a simple room next to their private quarters which contained a large and comfortable red sofa on which she sat. In front of her was a cyan crystal desk and on it sat a slab of pink Crystal Empire's patented crystalized metal and that held an oval mirror sitting over it with beautiful golden supports on both sides.

The first time Cadance had ever seen something similar was in one particular stadium where unicorn magic was inhibited when ponies passed under especially enchanted arches on their way to see the event. The idea was to prevent cheating and it was a rather strong magic, it required a lot of power and eventually somepony realized that wasn't a particularly smart idea. But the notion of complex spells bound to artifacts and its underlying arcane architecture made things like the communications mirrors possible.

Her reflecting bust stared back at Cadance until she charged up her horn with magic, thought of her beloved sister-in-law and projected her magic upon the device. It came alive projecting some light from its crystal component and her image vanished from the mirror replaced by an image of a horn and wavy lines emanating from it in a white background.

Cadance waited for a while moving her eyes about the room and thinking of how she could make it a little prettier. She also reminded herself that Twilight preferred magic-sent letters and such, but these pre-charged divination magic devices, which required only a small input from the user were much more practical. Even Princess Celestia, the bastion of all that was traditional had one installed in her palace. The pink alicorn also thought of Luna who 'prophesized' there would, eventually be hoof-held versions of it. Cadance betrayed a small knowing smile as her eyes rolled. As if those would ever get small enough.

Although, she supposed a version earth ponies and pegasi could easily use was way overdue. She knew of projects as she tried to keep in touch with such modern 'toys', but manufacturers seemed to keep bumping into design problems. Unicorn magic just made everything easier.

Suddenly, the device emitted a soft chime and Spike's curious face appeared on the mirror. "Oh! Princess Cadance! Hello!"

"Hi there, Spike! How are you?" She smiled happily, making herself comfortable on the sofa.

"Just great!" The young dragon answered excitedly. "Bought a new board game Shining is gonna love! It's about the Royal Guard fighting zomponies on Nightmare Night!"

The princess let out a soft chuckle. "That's great, Spike. Can I talk to Twilight?"

"She's having breakfast now. Do you need me to call her?" Spike pointed with a thumb.

She dismissed the need to fetch her with a hoof gesture and lightly shook her head 'no'. "No need. Please tell her that I, Shinny and Flurry will be going to Ponyville soon after lunch. I need her help with some research."

She watched curiously as he wrote something down outside of her view. "Sure thing! Is it important?"

Cadance raised an eyebrow. "I suppose it is…"

"Uh-huh." He wrote some more, and then spoke again, looking down at something. "Does it involve harmful magic or any other form of dangerous effects, including, but not limited to: curses, compulsions, high-energy elemental magic, necromancy or quesadillas?"

"It's just a preserved document!" She frowned a little. "Quesadillas? What? Did Twilight put you up to this?"

While the small dragon said nothing with his mouth, his eyes conveyed all the answer she would need. She grimaced a bit. "It's just an old document. A letter. Inside a protective enchanted crystal casing. I need her help figuring something out about its contents. It's in an old language and might be telling of events we didn't know. But it's just a letter."

"Alrighty then. I think I can fill up the rest of this… Is that all?" He was back to his 'can do attitude, and after she confirmed that she needed nothing more, they said their goodbyes.

After all the remaining morning functions and lunch were done Cadance and Shining Armor, accompanied by their maid who pushed Flurry Heart's carriage, a squad of Cadance's all-female guard corps, and one from the traditional local guard of the Crystal Empire left the palace. One of said guards carefully carried a black and thin briefcase under his wing. It wouldn't do to let the princess carry it, after all.

It was somewhat tiresome that they had to drag their entourage around every time they left the palace, but both of them could think of worse things, and had understood some time ago that they were the prince and princess for their subjects, not for themselves. Not to mention that they could be useful every now and then, and if they really wanted, they could simply dismiss their escort anyway. It usually created a situation where none needed be. In the end, it was better to be cautious: it wasn't a good time to be tempting luck.

As the royal couple preferred the small procession trotted through the streets of the Crystal Empire instead of riding a chariot. It was a bit of a walk, but the crystal ponies liked seeing them. And they drew attention from ponies both outside and inside, staring from within their crystal-y homes, waving and cheering for the royal couple until finally, after a somewhat pompous walk through town they arrived at their destination: it was a big, ornate and 'crystal-y' building on the edge of the city. Purple-ish and shiny, it was right at home in the Crystal Empire with some white snow over its roof.

One of the most useful advances in magic and infrastructure and one of Cadance's and Shining Armor's favorites was the creation of the Teleporters. They were very expensive to set-up, but practical, cheap to maintain and really increased the tourism income of the Crystal Empire. On the outside they were buildings of variable sizes and architecture made to specification to fit the needs and aesthetics of individual cities where they were installed. Usually when solicited by the municipal offices responsible for tourism and transportation. Or when a princess was tired of taking multiple-day train rides to go see her aunts or sister-in-law.

On the inside their individual layout varied from facility to facility as much as their aesthetic sense but after buying a ticket off the counters, easily accessible from the entrance, a pony would go past a door into the terminal area. There a series of placards would direct traveling ponies to one of the teleportation terminals.

Different companies operated each teleportation platform and they typically offered different prices, travel packages and on-site facilities which ranged from simple waiting rooms to art galleries, restaurants, gift shops and relaxation rooms. But the prince and princess usually preferred the services of the state-funded corporation. It seemed right.

Typically, waiting times were reasonable, but still ubiquitous since the platform's magical capacitors would need time to recharge. This was important because Cadance and Shining Armor preferred waiting in lines where they would form. They agreed that it was very uncomfortable when ponies tried to treat them with special benefits because of their position. Unfortunately for them ponies loved them too much and always offered them to skip lines, take the best seats, not pay for whatever services every now and then. In fact, some ponies were very insistent on that.

As Princess Celestia once told Cadance, '_You're the princess… You're always right, and you're always wrong. You're always humble, and you're always haughty. They always like you, and they always dislike you. Just relax and smile. Wave if you can. It will be over soon, and just be glad they don't think you can send them to the Moon over the smallest slight…'_

Thus, when they were offered to skip the line Cadance and Shining Armor simply smiled and allowed themselves and their entourage to be herded through the waiting room straight to the teleportation room. They even waved at the ponies on the way. They would be dishonest if they didn't admit that being able to skip lines wasn't the worst thing in the world.

Once inside the teleportation room ponies would see themselves in a medium sized room where the teleportation platform would be in the center, and next to it a single desk where the teleportation officer would be waiting. Of course, details such as decorations and uniforms would vary. The state-funded company kept costs to a minimum so it was a mostly empty room with the round teleportation platform in the center, made of crystalized metal and it was connected to the operator's desk by parallel golden lines.

While Cadence waited Shining took their tickets to the blue crystal pony unicorn on the other side of the desk. She had no uniform, only a blue hat with the Royal House's coat of arms.

"Fourteen ponies to Ponyville! Anything to declare?" She asked calmly.

One problem that could arise was that the pre-charged teleportation magic could disrupt other kinds of magic and vice-versa, and as such, for security reasons ponies were required to declare anything magical they might be carrying.

Different from naturally cast magic where the unicorn would instinctively adapt the formulae of the spell as it played it in their head pre-charged spells were rigid structures, less like a song that came from the heart and more like a recording of a generic one. That way a unicorn could easily deal with another form of magic disturbing his spell, as they performed a teleportation spell, but the enchantments charged into something could be potentially dangerous when mixed with the teleportation spell held in these devices.

Nopony wanted a repeat incident of the airship captain that got divided into his good and evil sides because of a magical disruption of a teleporter.

"Archaeological document preserved in enchanted crystal!" Cadance said calmly as the guard opened the briefcase he was carrying under his wing.

The unicorn nodded. "Those are fine, your highness. Please step onto the platform."

Since some spells where widely known such as typical preservation spells, the enchantments of a Royal Guard's armor, or the powerful ones in Cadance's royal regalia they were taken in consideration when these teleportation devices were created and whenever they were updated.

They climbed into the platform and the unicorn's horn charged up with magic which she infused into the desk and a small graphical representation of the small town appeared over it. "Thank you for choosing Equestria Magical Travel Corporation and have a safe travel!" The unicorn chimed happily as she magically activated the trigger step in the spell.

In an instant and with a flash the room had changed around them. The walls were covered in light cream masonry and another unicorn stood behind the desk. "Welcome to Ponyville your highnesses. Please step off the platform."

They did so as they thanked the new operator and walked out of the door this time to an empty waiting room. They wasted no time in leaving the facility, significantly smaller than the one in the Crystal Empire and well at home in the small, rustic town with pastel colored masonry on its walls and red roof tiles. Even a small plaza with a gift shop, a cafeteria, a small library, some sitting space, and a welcoming booth. There was also an ad for an express train line to Canterlot.

"So… How come Ponyville has a teleporter but Canterlot doesn't?" Shinning frowned a little.

"Oh. You don't know?" His wife giggled. "It seems that this facility should have been installed in Canterlot but the prices for the terrain and the aesthetic requirements were so out of this world high that no company offered to buy the slots in the facility. Leasing costs were insane!"

"Wow. But there are a lot of rich ponies in Canterlot." He wondered. "Didn't they want the teleporter there just so they could say they have it?"

"Well, yes… But during one of the meetings Princess Celestia let slip that..." She made a serious expression and mimicked Princess Celestia's voice. "_I have become a princess to rule Equestria, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across the land by this gadget._"

"That's… Not how Teleportation magic works." Shining deadpanned.

"Yes, but Princess Celestia doesn't trust those things. And that is how Canterlot's slim chances of getting a teleporter were gone forever."

"Wow. Though." He chuckled. "At least it seems that Ponyville is making good use of the teleporter."

They could see small stands in the square in front of the teleporter facility, and the city seemed to have increased in size, growing towards Twilight's school and her palace.

"Not to mention…" She agreed. "That Ponyville can certainly use the increase in income with tourism, and with Twilight's school, at least her students can come and go a little easier. I hear Twilight's asked Mayor Mare to work out special prices for them."

"Sounds fair." He nodded.

Once in Ponyville proper Cadance and Shining Armor went straight to Twilight's palace, where her small library used to be now a much larger and elaborated version of her library, as if the thing had grown to accommodate Twilight's new life as a Princess. However these things worked in Equestria…

Fortunately, the two weren't interrupted, and as soon as they arrived, they were received by Twilight and her typical court: her assistant and friend Spike, and her apprentice and friend Starlight Glimmer. Their escorts stayed outside and Shining carried the briefcase for Cadance.

After a short combination of dance, song, greetings and squee'ing over the baby they could get to business, and after a short explanation of what Cadance needed, with no questions asked Twilight led them on the way.

As the purple princess magically opened the doors to her own palace's library her eyes quickly scanned the main area dotted with reading tables and flanked by large bookcases. Quickly she found her librarian, Miss Goodread as the pale yellow and black unicorn was already going around her desk to welcome her princess and her friends.

"Ah! There you are! We need a few things for a research project: our climate records with temperature and sunrise and set records for the first century of the Age of The Royal Sisters, our copy of the same records made by the griffons, and all we have on griffon history!"

"Immediately Princess!" She said, and wasted no time turning around and quickly went on her way towards the large bookshelves.

"We have a copy of the griffon's climate records?" Spike asked with huge eyes, actually impressed. "I mean… I can understand history books, but…"

"I need to fill this library." Twilight explained with a small frown of annoyance. "There are a lot of empty spaces yet. Not to mention the one on the school."

"So, what is this all about, then?" Spike sat on the next reading table.

The Princess of Love sat on her own chair. "I found a letter sent by a griffon 'emperor' to King Sombra, and in it he discussed how the sun had been acting weirdly, and how temperatures had been rising. But, most importantly, he blamed it on the unicorns and not on Princess Celestia after Discord. Not only that, but there is mention of a griffon invasion and what seems like a huge chapter of griffon history that's gone missing including records of some sort of empire."

Twilight took the letter for herself to read while Starlight and Spike both stared at the two princesses. Finally, the pony spoke. "So… Does any of this make any difference today?"

"Of course, it does!" Twilight said cheerfully as she sat at the table and left the letter. "Our records might be wrong, and so the ones from the griffons since our documents on their history come from them! Now it is possible that this 'empire thing' was simply a nomenclature decision at the time that was revoked later, so… We need to keep an eye for that. The invasion, well it's possible that it wasn't relevant to Equestria or that the griffon forces never arrived. So that is another thing to be on careful about!"

"Twilly…" Shining Armor looked at her from the other side of the table. "Is it possible that the griffons could lie about their past? Wouldn't other nations that had contact with them know?"

"Well, that time was peculiar. Because of Discord. The whole world was a mess while everyone tried to recover from the damage he caused."

"So…" Starlight was unimpressed. "How does that make a difference today?"

Both the pony and the dragon looked unimpressed, actually, and Twilight frowned with frustration. "If anything, it's an excuse to travel to the griffon lands and present our data on Canterlot while you two can tour the capital?"

Spike and Starlight looked at each other agreeably, with the dragon looking happy. "Yeah, that works."

"What are we gonna do, then?" Starlight sat on one of the chairs, and at that precise moment, Miss Goodread dropped several massive leather-bound tomes on top of the table with enough weight to almost make the poor table split in half.

"We are going to check Equestria's records!" Twilight squee'ed. "First we're going to do some research on the holy empire and on Emperor Gregor! Then we'll check records of military movements for evidence of the invasion or even the departure of the griffon force. Finally, we'll check temperature records from the Canterlot Archives, the Royal Observatory, the griffon records and compare them all. But we'll start with the letter! We'll translate this wonderful specimen of a dead language! It's so exciting!"

"Fun!" Starlight Glimmer laughed awkwardly, immediately regretting agreeing to this. "I'll be in the lounge if somepony needs help recovering their sanity when you're done."

But as she started her retreat she was captured by purple telekinetic magic and put back her on her chair. All she could do was sigh in defeat and steel her sanity.

Well into the afternoon, the small 'study group' was still at the library, surrounding the same reading table which now contained a fine wooden tray with half-eaten daisy sandwiches and empty glasses.

"This can't be right… This Emperor Gregor never existed!" Twilight was perplexed as she examined down her notes. The griffons at the time were supposed to be a large collection of independent kingdoms and that was it. "I don't get it! It was only much later they united, when King George came into picture and that culminated on the First Griffon War when their nobility resisted the Alicorn Concordat."

Starlight kept her thoughts to herself given present company, but a treaty that was otherwise known as 'Princess Meddling Accord'… Gee, someone had to offer some resistance eventually. Maybe ponies and the others were too afraid of the alicorns and it was the griffons that finally had the guts to stand up to them.

"Maybe our records of griffon history are wrong?" Cadance offered.

"No, that can't be! Our records, present here, on Canterlot, and the whole world were made by the griffons! They unified these resources after the unified kingdom."

Twilight stuttered a bit. "I-I mean… He's not in the records for griffon rulers, and they have detailed records of all dynasties, of all the independent kingdoms and of the united kingdom, up to the Equestrian Confederacy. They don't even acknowledge this Holy Griffon Empire… It is as though it never existed."

"If the griffons collated and distributed the documents about their history…" Starlight started. "It would be very easy for them to lie about it. It's something a newly minted unified government might be tempted to do."

Miss Goodread agreed with the other unicorn, nodding. "That is true, princess. It happened before the Alicorn Concordat. They wouldn't have to answer to the princesses at the time."

"Do we have any independent sources on griffon history?" Twilight stared at nothing in particular until a smile appeared on her face. "We do!"

Goodread had a smile on her face as she waited for her princess to tell her what to look for. "Trail Blazer, The Lonely! It's titled 'Of Memoirs Beyond'! He was a pony historian from the time that took interest in cultures beyond the ocean, but never published his work about it. However, his notes were recently recovered from his home, and published by his descendants!"

Goodread nodded once and smiled. "I'll find it and see what I can uncover in it about this Gregor, or his empire."

"And we are going to check the temperature and sunset and rise records." Twilight agreed.

As the day progressed and turned into night, and then went late into it so did the growing pile of discarded notes in the form of crumpled paper, bread crumbles and drops of apple juice on the table. Then it occurred to Cadance while the younger princess and her lilac friend were hunched over their notes that all they drank in Twilight's palace was apple juice. She wondered if the fact that Applejack was Twilight's friend and owner of the biggest apple farm in the region had anything to do with that.

For a brief instant of insanity, amid the numbers, formulae for unit conversion, and facts about the sun, about the moon, she realized Sweet Apple Acres products were sold all the way to the Crystal Empire and wondered if Princess Celestia would eat their zap apple jam without even knowing that Applejack secretly ruled Equestria with an apple fist.

Still, the fact being that all she ever drank was the regional mountain water in the Crystal Empire and apple juice in Ponyville. She glared at Twilight who didn't notice and made a mental note of the fact that she'd like to try that famous Blueblood chardoneigh or the exclusive Sang Royal from the Royal Winery at least once again before dying, if it wasn't asking too much! Why in Tartarus did Canterlot Palace even have a wine cellar if Luna liked much stronger stuff and all Celestia ever drank was that Discord-cursed tea!?

The pink princess sighed and massaged her temples. "I need a break…"

Ignorant of her sister-in-law's thoughts Twilight looked at the records, her notes again, and Cadance's own notes besides her, as Shining Armor slept with his head on the table and Flurry Heart slept, curled into a ball on his back. "Maybe there was something in the griffon lands, at the time that made those days hotter? I mean, they could easily have missed that if they somehow missed an empire!"

"Nuh uh." Said Starlight, now surprisingly interested with the whole thing while pointing at the document Cadance had brought. "If that were the case then whatever report King Sombra had sent this Gregor griffon shouldn't have confirmed the numbers the griffon astronomers came up with."

"Maybe our data is simply wrong…" Spike offered from his seat, half-asleep but hanging on like the good trooper he was. Still, he was getting bored. "Or even yet, this whole thing is a misunderstanding."

The princess agreed with them, silently, thoughtfully staring at the documents spread over the table. The dragon and both Cadance and her apprentice friend remained in silence. It was usually a good idea to let Twilight think.

Then Miss Goodread approached her with an open book. "I found a reference to Emperor Gregor. It seems that he did exist because Stargazer recounts his travels to Griffonia, being arrested and taken to the Emperor, who then left him free to tell of the greatness of his empire."

"Well, what did he write about the Holy Empire?" Twilight asked anxiously.

"Hum…" Goodread hesitated with flopped ears. "He said he fled in the first boat because he was too scared."

"Oh! Come on! That could be completely anecdotal!" Twilight screamed in frustration. "You know what? We need a third set of the same data so we can rule out foul-play from either parties. And confirm one of the versions."

"From whom?" Cadance looked at her, and Twilight put her hoof on her chin even more thoughtful than before. Going after the historical records for the griffons would be a dead end: what they had was likely to be the same everyone else had since it was the official griffon history. Sure, she could go around checking obscure references, but that would be too impractical because discrepancies would arise from independent records anyway. They needed something that was objective and the temperature records would be perfect.

The problem was that the records were the same for griffons and ponies. She needed someone else's. She didn't know if the zebra did this sort of records. The hippogriffs probably didn't. It's possible that the kirin or minotaurs had records, but it wasn't very probable. The yak? Doubtful. The dragons? Unlikely.

Then the answer materialized in her head, her smile grew, and her ears perked up. "The Changelings!"

Starlight was somewhat surprised and Cadance simply waited. "The changelings? Why would the changelings keep climate records or know about the griffons?"

"Because not only they infiltrated every corner of Equestria before we figured out their spells, but temperature influences the development rate of changeling larvae and of the queen's capacity for generating them." Twilight explained, gesticulating and sounding excited. "Before the Changeling Rock, and before temperature management spells, Queen Chrysalis depended on understanding how temperatures change, so that she could lay her eggs in the best period of the year. Since it was that important she actually had her drones keep precise records. Up to a time, at least… It was only when we developed those spells, she stopped worrying about it. So, they should have the data we need. And considering their methods, they might even have good information on the griffons of the time that might explain this Gregor guy!"

"Huh… The more you know." Starlight wondered if, had she studied as much as Twilight had, she would know this sort of thing.

"What if they threw it all away, Twilight?" Shining Armor looked at them raising his head from the table and waking Flurry Heart. "I mean… It's a long shot to imagine they have info on Gregor, but they may have thrown away the climate records."

"Uh… Then, we'd be out of luck, I guess." The princess shrugged.

"Don't we have a copy of the Changeling's records?" Spike asked from his perch on the table.

"Nopony asked them." Twilight's librarian shook her head. "And I doubt the Changelings would've shared them before the Heartmend Treaty."

"So, what?" Starlight asked, sounding somewhat worried with what might come next. "Are you going to ask they sent a copy? Maybe a summary of their materials on the griffons?"

"No!" The purple princess was excited again. "We are going to the Changeling Rock!"

"Send them a letter!" Starlight begged. No way Twilight could be talking seriously. And no way she would drag her on a travel all the way to the Changeling Rock. Sure, they have traveled to much farther places, but it wasn't Canterlot with its gold and silver towers or the great griffon mountain cities… It's the Changeling Rock! Literally a big rock full of pony-bugs! "Call them via divination magic mirror!"

Twilight shook her head. "It could take days before the changelings replied. They are busy with the new brood, and they don't have a mirror. Not to mention, it would be a lot of information to collate and send to us."

Starlight's hooves met her face as panic began to set in. "For Celestia's sake! It's a two-day train ride to Dodge City and then a six-day caravan to the Changeling Rock, half of it through a dead badland. If we're lucky, and there is one ready to go when we arrive, we don't get attacked by monsters or some highwayponies don't get ideas about stealing from the Princess! Because of a weird griffon emperor nopony wants to remember!"

Granted, that did sound important… But… Eight days of travel for something that is likely not going to mater in the long run anyway?!

"Well, there may also have been an invasion we didn't know about…" Cadance added and Starlight kept to herself what a fat lot of difference that made.

"Well, we could go by train and then walk. Or…" Twilight's expression changed to a smug smile. "We could ride an airship."


	2. Queen Mother

It was a beautiful airship, but not one of the typical zeppelins that flew all over Equestria. This one was a modern fast magical flying ship. It had a sleek design with a shallow draught, and thin beam typical of its kind held aloft by twin magic induction engines mounted on its short aft swan style wings and tail. Finally, it had a single mast, holding its main sail and three fore staysails.

Simply put it was a very fast airship built for speed and maneuverability, designed to transport dignitaries on important diplomatic travels and Twilight was very proud of it. Its crystalized metal hull made with crystal pony magic and then enchanted by the best spellcasters in the field was light purple while it's sails where a soft shade of pink catching the wind and fueling the engines with magical energies as the wind itself also propelled the craft forward. On its bow its registration and name read 'HHS 0004 - _Magic of Friendship_' hoofpainted in black cursive letters.

Since its small size couldn't hold Cadance's and Shinning's escort they went back to the Crystal Empire leaving their protection to Twilight's personal guards. Which also couldn't fit because Twilight's friends decided they wanted a ride too. So, their protection was on the hooves of the airship's pegasus crewponies, and one unicorn.

While its small crew worked its magical systems and sails, Twilight and her guests leisurely appreciated the view as the ship sailed through the air at a high, but still comfortable altitude. It was a little cold, but that was a part of the experience. She stood on the ship's bow with her hoof over her eyes and her gold and amethyst royal regalia shinning under the sun while she watched the horizon next to her ship's captain.

He was a dark-blue pegasus with short-cut mane and tail and a tricorn hat and a stereotypically gruff voice. "We should arrive in two days' time, your highness. Winds being good. But when she's charged, we'll drop the sails and get her to full speed."

"Good job, captain!" She grinned proudly as she turned to her friends all over the main deck.

Having been joined by Twilight's other close friends, the ship was somewhat crowded. But as Twilight could attest to, looking at Rarity wearing sunglasses, a blue scarf and a large white bonnet in the wind, it was hard keeping her friends off the vessel as soon as it's left its airdock.

Pinkie hopped across the deck, Rainbow talked to two of the pegasus crewponies, probably bragging about something while they listened as intently as a pair of fans, Fluttershy held as tight as she could to the mast while Applejack comforted her, Spike spoke to another crewpony who ponied the wheel, Starlight Glimmer held to the railing, looking around, and Cadance was coming to Twilight, accompanied by Shining Armor and her maid, who pushed Flurry Heart's baby carriage.

"Twily… When did you buy an airship?!" He was still half-dazed after his wife's healing spell for his airsickness. "It's amazing! What is its range? Maximum speed?"

"Never mind that!" Cadance was exasperated next to him. "Where did you get the money to pay for one of these?!"

"Well, they're a bit of a novelty yet and most vendors will ask for an eye and a leg, but they're not that expensive if you look for the right vendor, in the right city. Las Pegasus is the best. And actually, I used Royal Treasury money."

Cadance blinked a couple of times. "How did you get Princess Celestia to agree?!"

"Well…" Twilight smiled as though she had found the secret to the universe. "I found out she had ordered her old ship revitalized and modernized."

Cadance took a few seconds to process that. "Princess Celestia has an airship?! Her?! She didn't want a mirror! We had to convince her!"

Shining nodded enthusiastically. "It's probably the Break of Dawn. It's the hundred and four-gun first-rate ship of the line she sailed on the Second Griffon War. It is in the Manehattan War Museum. Or, likely, was."

The pink alicorn had a very annoyed look on her face. "Shining, Common Equestrian. I don't speak 'nerd'."

Twilight giggled. "It's basically an oversized monstrosity with a lot of big guns. I suppose she's going to have the guns removed and decks renovated to turn the ship into a luxury liner of sorts."

A ship like that, Shining thought would probably turn into a flying palace. With its gundecks removed, the artisans could do all sorts of cool things with the interior space. After they reinforced the structure, they could put a pool on its deck, a giant bedroom, many guestrooms, probably a game room, a bar, probably an armory for the Princess' guards and crewponies…

Cadance however, was quickly becoming angry. "Don't tell me that Luna has an airship too!"

"She sure does. The Mare Serenitatis." Twilight answered. "A frigate from the same time. And she's probably doing the same. Though hers will be a lot smaller and faster. Luna doesn't like drawing too much attention, you know."

Meanwhile, Shining Armor was far, far away… On a sunny day swimming on the deck pool of his own airship 'The Emperor' while Cadance sunbathed by the edge and Flurry Heart played with colorful building blocks next to her. The ship flew easily through the white cottony clouds of Central Equestria, lazily orbiting around the capital. Calm winds and a nice weather for sailing… Flying… Whatever.

"How come I'm the only one that doesn't have an airship?!" The angry pink princess complained, and Flurry Heart waved her little hooves angrily. She wanted one too!

Cadance, as efficient as she was with the Crystal Empire's finances couldn't afford one. It's true that the Crystal Empire didn't go so well in that department and that Princesses Celestia and Luna had access to ludicrous amounts of resources in the form of ponypower, expertise and pure money… But Princess Celestia was worse than Cadance's old matron from her days in the old orphanage. How in Tartarus did she decide that she wanted a flying ship? Where would she go with it? Did she plan to throw the next Grand Galloping Gala in it or something?

For pony's sake! Celestia poured a lot of money into social events but has been wearing the same crown since… Cadance didn't know… Since the universe decided it wanted to exist? She was probably that old, anyways!

"Well, your highness." Rarity casually trotted over to them. "Yours is a representative position. You need impressive… Powers of representation."

"Ah ha…" Cadance paid attention. That is probably what convinced the old alicorn to invest in such a ship. She probably wanted to throw events in it and use it to draw rich ponies to charity events. That made sense to Cadance.

"Well…" Rarity went on gesticulating with her hooves. "Some less reputable news sources have mentioned that Princess Celestia may have second intentions with that ship. You see they say she gave their consort a particularly exclusive smoking pipe. Then, some say Luna gave him a personalized armor. Following that Celestia gave him a new set of personalized and enchanted sword and pistols. Then, supposedly Princess Luna gave him a new finely cut and enchanted cloak. That is what prompted Princess Celestia to refurbish the old ship as an airship… Supposedly. If you know what I mean."

"Their new boyfriend sure did the princesses a lot of good, huh?" Rainbow elbowed at Pinkie who giggled at that.

"Oh, we're so getting one of these!" The pink princess hit the wooden floor hard with a hoof. "Shining?"

The water caressed his coat and the warm sun made him feel like he could simply lay there forever floating on his back with sunglasses on and a soft breeze. It almost didn't bother him when a shadow disturbed his sunbathing and he removed his glasses staring up at Princesses Celestia and Luna lacking their royal jewelry and smiling very pleasantly.

"May we join you, captain?" The white one said.

"Shinning!" Cadance yelled his attention back to the real world.

He yelped and looked at his wife and giggling sister and white coated friend back on Twilight's ship's deck. "What?"

"I said, we're going to buy an airship!" Cadance said with a frown. "What is with the creepy smile?"

The crowded quarters under the ship's deck didn't bother the close group of friends. With some patience, goodwill, common sense and tasty supplies provided by the Pink Party Pony herself they were able to keep a good mood throughout the trip until the end of the second day when they approached their destination. In the meantime Twilight and Cadance filled the others up on their mission and its importance.

Flying fast Twilight's airship quickly approached the aptly named Changeling Rock: a big, jagged rock formation the changelings have magically carved their home into, the legends say before the time of Equestria. But Twilight and Cadance knew that it was not true. The changelings used to live in an abandoned pony city which name had been lost to the time. The changelings, though, called it City of Queens. At least that was how its name translated to Common Equestrian from their weird chittering language.

They called it that because it was like a meeting hub for all the queens of the Changeling Swarm as well as home to the first changeling ever. Of course, at the time they called themselves 'mothers' instead of 'queens', and the first one titled herself 'Mother of Mothers', and all the changeling broods lived in peace meeting in the city to share knowledge and wisdom as well as to pay tribute to the Mother of Mothers which was, of course in the form of Love. But while this story appealed to Cadance's motherly fee-fees Twilight suspected that the whole story might've been romanticized a little. Or a lot.

Beyond that, the legend was indeed older than Equestria, the Three Tribes or recorded pony history and slipped into myth. Which was not exactly a sign of accuracy, but Twilight managed to track the original story.

It went that a pony lived in that town and that she was the most beautiful pony to ever exist. A pony of unknown name and race that used to say that her beauty was beyond even the beauty of the starry night sky. Not a very smart thing to say in Twilight's opinion, but such were ponies in these stories. Apparently, she had many suitors, but she was in love with herself and wouldn't accept court by any stallion or mare claiming that her beauty was too far beyond theirs or any gift they could ever offer to her. And since she wasn't testing fate enough already not even if the night made itself into flesh and courted her, she would accept it.

It was said that she was a descendant of some goddess of love, and that would, supposedly explain her unnatural beauty and all the admiration that she received from all that laid eyes on her. Of course, one night the Night itself did came down to the world to see for itself the legendary beauty of that pony.

Princess Luna must've loved this story…

Regardless, the story went that on such night the pony pranced through the golden oat fields which surrounded the city under the moonlight until she came upon a great and wondrous creature like nothing she had ever seen before. Staring at it was impossible, and it looked like a force of nature given flesh rather than a normal creature. Its body was made of a dim blue light, which emanated from her dark coat as dark as the void between the stars and looking at it was staring at infinity itself. Her mane was a sprawling starlit sky of the most beautiful night ever and her horn was as dark as obsidian, but her eyes shone with the eerie moonlight. The creature was tall and looked down at the pony with its open wings, and they were as if the creature carried the night itself with it.

The pony had indeed never seen anything like it, and she could not tear her eyes from the ghostly lights that stared at her at the same time she felt like her soul was made colder by its stare. It was not something a mortal was meant to see. Whatever that would mean… Twilight would've preferred Ponytone color codes.

Anyway, the creature spoke, and her voice was as if a distant storm approached. "Thy beauty is, indeed, unknown amongst the mortals. I would share mine resting place in the skies aboven with such consort as fair as thee."

"Beautiful and terrifying you are, Night-Made-Flesh." The pony answered. "But of my great beauty, greater that that of the starry skies you will not boast yourself for I shall not share it with any creature less fair than me."

"Black is thy heart, foolish mortal. No more beautiful thing than mine night there is. I curse thee, then to suffer for eternity until death takes thee. Thy beauty I shall take and thou heart shall never know the solace of reciprocal love ever hungered for that which you cannot ever have."

And that, the legend goes, was how the changelings were born. She called herself Farfalla, Mother of Mothers. Herself and her descendants 'ever taking semblance to the beauty of others, but never of their own, ever feeding on the love directed at others, but never at themselves. Ever feared and shunned, always hungry and scared of the ones that had all they couldn't have.'

Ponies fled the town and who knows how in Equestria she reproduced (Twilight imagined nightly ponynappings), but she turned the town into her nest.

It remained until Mother Farfalla had spent her spirit and wished that death would end her suffering. Well, Chrysalis, The Queen Chrysalis, supposedly obliged. And then she killed all of her brood-mother sisters, uniting all the broods under her through conquest erasing their distinctiveness, drowning in blood any lineage that would not serve her purposes or changeling of any age or profession that would not bow to her and call her Queen of the Changelings.

After all, since ponies were stupid and gods were petty why not wrap it all up with matricide, sororicide and ethnical cleansing, with a pinch of tyranny and egomania?

While Cadance simply accepted the legend, Twilight always felt that it either was simply a cautionary tale against narcissism to the point she was convinced the pony's original name was 'Narcissus', or it was one of those stories grammas told about the changelings and what horrible creatures they were.

Then she learned that Princess Celestia might have known Mother Farfalla and the event that drove Chrysalis to commit matricide was the Changeling Swarm being banished from the lands of Central Equestria driven to the Badlands where they would starve. But that is unknown and Princess Celestia would not talk about this dismissing it as an old mare's tale.

Yeah… Twilight had heard that one before… But good luck getting that old immovable object of a pony to talk about anything she didn't want to! Still, while the more incautious of ponies could think that the princess actually did believe that ponies believed her 'old mare's tale' excuse Twilight knew her old teacher, friend and eternal mentor much better. Princess Celestia was very old, and ponies tended to forget that. What ponies impersonally treated as legends, were very much painful and personal memories for her. 'It's just an old mare's tale' was the old mare's way of politely saying '_do not presume you have the experience and knowledge to talk to me about this, you impudent piece of uneducated mediocrity_'.

Or something of the sort… It would be unlikely that Celestia would say something like that in reality. That legend had a tendency of leaving Twilight in a sour mood. The point is that Celestia's reluctance to talk about it lent some credence to the idea. At least in Twilight's head. Still, since the only two ponies in Equestria old enough to know for sure wouldn't talk about it, Twilight had no way of knowing.

Once she was done Chrysalis supposedly moved her swarm to the Changeling Rock and there they remained until present day protected by the queen's magic and their own capacity for counterintelligence. It was only after ponies had figured out how to detect their magic that they ceased to plant misinformation and threaten anyone that wasn't them. Ponies shared the information about the changeling magic and that negated their biggest advantage in the field of intelligence. That is when they became much more reluctant to leave their nest, and eventually this story concluded with the Heartmend Treaty being signed in Canterlot.

But Twilight felt she had already wasted too much time on the past, so she directed her attention to the nicer present, and the big rock in front of her airship.

Seen from afar the rock simply looked like a large black collection of spires reflecting the light from the evening sun, but as the airship flew closer, they could see all the particular details. It showed windows, bridges, balconies for standing leisurely and to use as landing pads, open spaces and several changelings, the new colorful half-pony, half-bug denizens of the Swarm as they flew around their home eventually staring at the approaching airship.

Not only they could see the changelings were flying all over, but they were carrying buckets and all sorts of painting tools such as assorted brushes and rolls. They were painting the black obsidian walls of the Rock in colorful, fluorescent flowery designs accompanied by images of the sun, the moon, stars, and hearts. The rock's sullener colors clashed but that didn't seem to bother the Changelings. Not to mention that they didn't seem to have many accomplished artists among them.

"What are they doing to the Changeling Rock?" Starlight Glimmer stared at their work and then at the others next to her in the railings.

"Thorax said they're getting it ready to receive the new brood!" Spike looked with a weird expression at the whole thing. "But, uh… It's not that bad, but it looks weird."

"Changelings have a dreadful sense of aesthetics…" Rarity grumbled unimpressed next to him and Twilight giggled next to her.

"It's not that bad, and the important thing is that they're happy, now. And multiplying."

"So… They're friends now?" Pinkie asked. "They don't eat pony love anymore?"

"Well, they do…" Twilight started insecurely. "But… Uh…"

"We barely know a thing about changelings…" Cadance told Pinkie. "They've opened up a little since the treaty was signed."

Then the princess' ears folded back, and she barely contained her frustration. "To which meetings I was never invited, but I know something bad had happened and that is why they came to us."

Twilight frowned a little looking at the black rock. "In the treaty Princess Celestia assured them that they would get all the help they needed as long as there was peace and the new changelings could thrive. Anyway, it appears that since they became well-fed, they changed and started looking like that. Or something…"

"That's not shady at all…" Cadance still felt a little angry at being left out of the whole thing, since she now considered the queen almost a friend. "The Princesses and Chrysalis dealt with the whole thing behind closed doors, the Senate was 'notified', the changelings got support in the form of 'love and acceptance', my healing spell, representation on the Senate, and recognition of the Swarm as part of the confederacy and, in return they must stop aggression towards all races and Chrysalis was to make some changes to the Swarm. Seems to me they got a lot and still didn't really give anything after a couple of years."

As Cadance talked Twilight's eyebrow raised a bit because to her it looked like Princess Celestia had just annexed the Swarm and the Senate could suck it if they didn't like it. Still no one complained. She wondered if it was because everyone was afraid of the problems the griffons had brewing since back then or… Something. It always amused Twilight when Princess Celestia pulled these maneuvers that should make representatives and leaders throw a fit but blew past in the wind as if nothing had ever happened.

"So… How exactly did the problem with the changelings get fixed?" Starlight Glimmer's voice brought Twilight out of her thoughts again.

Twilight looked at Cadance, who smiled proudly as talking about it immediately improved her mood. "Love magic, of course! The queen could generate new eggs and then all she needed was a male donor."

The white stallion next to her shivered and Cadance had one of the creepiest smiles ever seen by ponykind. "I believe Princess Celestia's words were 'one perfect example of diligence and duty, a physique due of none but the best examples of the race and a sharp psyche, fit for an exemplar soldier'."

"Oh my…" Rarity couldn't contain her giggling. "I think the princess was actually courting you, Shinning Armor."

When more giggling followed, the white unicorn couldn't find a place to hide his face. "Please, stop."

"So… Uh…" Applejack looked at the others and talked in her accent. "Are we gonna have new queens? Or something?"

"I don't have a clue." Twilight shook her head. "Changelings are being pretty secretive about it all."

"Well, I would be too if my mom was married to my brother and… Nnnngh…" There wasn't a hair in Rainbow's coat that didn't stand up and the others chuckled.

"Rainbow Dash, changelings are different. You can't judge them like you would a pony. They clearly don't think about it like that, and their brothers aren't defined like that." Fluttershy looked interested, having forgotten her fear of heights and holding onto the railing, maybe even excited. "Maybe we'll learn something about it here?"

"We can certainly try!" Twilight grinned happily. "I don't think it would hurt to ask, they are preparing for a new brood, after all!"

Then the captain called to them from the wheel. "We're landing! Hold on tightly!"

Crewponies maneuvered the vessel around the large rock formation and softly parked it hovering a few hooves off the ground then quickly deployed a ladder from its side. As the ponies disembarked Shining Armor carried the briefcase with the document on his back and Cadance took Flurry Heart with her. A couple of changelings approached casually and then promptly bowed before the princesses. An awkward moment later the changelings happily greeted them.

"Princess Twilight! Princess Cadance! Welcome to the Changeling Rock!" The first said in a soft male voice.

"Can we help you?!" The second had an excited female voice as her legs seemed unable to remain still beneath her. "We're so excited you're here! Did you come to see the new brood?"

"They're not ready yet!" The male was now as excited as his friend. "But we sure can show you all the new decorations and nursery!"

"We need to see some of your historical records from the Age of the Royal Sisters if you still have them." No need for too many details right now, Cadance thought… The whole research is already awkward enough.

"We appreciate the help!" Twilight thanked them looking at the pair. And after a second she added excitedly. "But we wouldn't mind learning more about the new brood either!"

Cadance simply smiled and rolled her eyes discreetly.

Meanwhile, the male changeling had a bit of a confused look with his hoof under his chin as he looked at Twilight and then at his companion, and after a couple of seconds she finally talked also looking somewhat confused. "Well. I don't have a clue about our historical archives. You'd need to talk to the king and queen."

The queen? Twilight immediately felt something was wrong… First of all, Chrysalis as far as she knew wasn't supposed to be _queen regnant_. Second, she could clearly remember that Thorax was supposed to the new leader of the changelings and Chrysalis shouldn't have the authority to 'let them' do anything.

She took a careful look at both changelings while Cadance still talked cheerfully with them. Maybe they let her retain some authority out of respect? Feeling her 'princess duties' tingling, she felt like she should talk to Thorax about it before leaving. Preferably without Chrysalis nearby. On another note Twilight didn't think they'd keep her around just for reproduction… It would be wrong.

"We can take you to them, though!" The male finally said happily and pointing towards their home with a hoof.

"Lead the way, then!" Cadance giggled starting after the changelings.

As the group followed up the large stair access to the Changeling Rock more changelings flew down or trotted outside to look at the visitors and the Magic of Friendship's crewponies remained with the vessel as well as the royal couple's maid.

Once inside the Changeling Rock became a labyrinth of corridors, nooks and crannies, high and low ceilings for no apparent reason, and every now and then a particularly conspicuous room or lounge area, even a corridor that seemed to go a long way. Bioluminescent goo inside of crystal-like containers embedded on the walls provided a milky-white light inside the large rocky structure where the natural sunlight wouldn't reach and the air became a little too hot and humid for the tastes of the ponies, but nopony was about to complain. This was the changelings' home after all.

While most ponies in the group simply followed the others around Fluttershy and Twilight seemed particularly excited and curious. Even if she felt something might be wrong Twilight could empathize with Fluttershy's curiosity, and certainly fell to her own.

Along the way they met more and more of the colorful changelings preparing their home for the festivities and being generally friendly, but as they climbed the winding labyrinthian corridors they soon came to a large rocky door guarded by a couple of changelings that had kept their black chitinous carapace instead of looking colorful.

Immediately Twilight went back to her initial feeling that something was wrong, and they also seemed to have kept their demeanor, because holding their spears they stared at the newcomers with less than happy excitement. Most importantly Twilight and Cadance immediately identified all sorts of protective spells cast over those doors and their weapons.

"What the flaming hell is this?" The guard on the left said, not giving them time to ask why they looked different. "Everyling knows this area is prohibited to all but the Queen's Guard!"

Twilight, Cadance and friends stared at each other and the colorful changeling female was about to talk when Rainbow Dash flew to the front of the group. "Hey! You can't talk to us like that! These are both Princesses of Equestria and you can't keep them from going anywhere they want."

The changeling soldier wasn't very impressed as he pushed the pegasus with the butt of his spear. "Back off, lady!"

"Oh! How rude!" Rarity complained angrily.

"Now, now. There is no need for that." The female changeling stepped in between the two and spoke softly. "These nice ponies simply need access to the queen or the king so that they can look at some of our old records."

The changeling on the right spoke then. "The king is inside, and you can't get past this door."

"Fuckin' peasants." The first one added with ostensive lack of patience.

Twilight Sparkle was a very nice and respecting pony, but she could not stand this sort of behavior from her fellow ponies or from changelings. Especially when one of them used such words to refer to the nicer changelings in his hive. That is why she craned her neck and flared her wings in an impressive display of feathers and 'princessdom'.

"I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle and Bearer of The Element of Magic. This is an important endeavor of archeological research, and you're being stubborn just because you can! This would be much easier if you just stopped being so mean and let us pass or even simply called the king. We just need to look at some old pieces of parchment and there is no need for this rudeness!"

Even if she never liked pulling rank reminding others that she was indeed a princess usually ended this sort of trouble with problematic statesponies and officials that insisted on creating problems where none needed be. It was a very fair use of her position and her right. Her friends also knew that and paid close attention to it. Though not for the reasons Twilight thought.

The changeling, however, was cleverer than most problematic statesponies and officials and Twilight lacked Celestia's impressive size and gravitas.

"Lady…" He said stoically. "I don't give a rat's behind if you're the Princess of Friendship or the Princess of the Mighty Rainbow Cannon. This here door ain't opening for your royal hindquarters and you ain't going in!"

Of course, it was always amusing when Twilight did try to pull her rank and it backfired like that, but she preferred to think she didn't hear somepony snorting.

Still, she let out a frustrated cry and meant to insist, when Cadance joined her but with a different strategy that usually worked with officials of other jurisdictions. "Well, I've come all the way from the Crystal Empire just to see some documents. It's really important: I have found a document that's unheard of and that may change the history of Equestria. I am sure the Queen and King would appreciate cooperation as much as Princess Celestia, especially when our research is done, and we would thank all those who helped us."

Cadance, for all her niceness, had learned very early that names opened doors. Especially Princess Celestia's name.

But, also unfortunately for her, the changeling didn't care she had come all the way from the Crystal Empire, nor did he care about history or that she had dropped Celestia's name. "With all due respect, Your Highnesses… What part of 'prohibited' are you having trouble comprehending?"

They were ready to unleash another round of reasons why they should be allowed further, with added, if unappreciated support from the newest princess on Cadance's back when the doors opened and none other than the king's 'brother' came out, also clad in his black carapace. "What is all this racket?"

"Pharynx!" Twilight held on to the opportunity. "Can we talk to Thorax? Please?! They won't let us past the door! We only need a few minutes of access to your archives and we'll be gone!"

"No. You can't." He said bluntly.

Cadance's hoof met her face and Twilight's wings fell back into their place and she sighed. "I give up."

"Hey, Pharynx. Can I talk to you? From one Captain of the Guard to another?" Shinning Armor came up from the group and magically tossed a Bit that tinkled on the floor between them. "Oh, look. A Bit."

The two of them huddled down together over the shiny coin and talked in hushed voices. Both changeling soldiers remained stoically by the door, actively disinterested while the two colorful ones simply waited with curious expectations. Twilight and Cadance looked at one another with raised eyebrows and the rest of the group drew closer to the two princesses. Maybe trying to listen in but it wasn't possible.

"Alright, fine." Pharynx finally stood up with Shining Armor, who grabbed his coin back. "But only the two alicorns. Xipho, show them to the Queen's Spawning Pool. They'll find Thorax there. Just make sure they don't bother the queen. I really don't want to hear from this, understand?"

"Yessir." The annoying changeling said with a salute. At least he did a good job of not showing how little he cared.

Pharynx then went off followed by Shining Armor who left the briefcase with Cadance. "Good luck, hon. Come along Spike, we're going to see the new recreation facilities."

"Cool!" He waved goodbye to his friends as he followed the pony and the changeling. "See you guys later then."

"Wait. Wait! What? What the hay just happened here?!" Cadance held the briefcase in her magic and looked confused at the changelings standing by the door, Shining Armor going away and Twilight who looked each way and another, also trying to understand what had happened when Xipho called them impatiently from the other side of the now open door.

"You two ponies coming or what?"

"And what are we supposed to do?" Rainbow Dash pointed at her and friends, all sonorously complaining that they'd been left behind.

"You can wait in the airship, I suppose." Xipho shrugged going his way. "Or you can see the new decorations. It's not my problem, really."

"Hum…" Fluttershy moved her hoof around in a demure way. "I'd really like to see the new changelings… If it's not a problem. I am a sort of specialist in different species."

"Whatever… Fine." Xipho thought she looked harmless enough, anyway.

Going up long corridors and stairs Twilight and Cadance didn't look very friendly and Fluttershy kept to herself while the changeling led them through a rather simple design of climbing areas and redundant passages. Cadance carried the briefcase under her wing and her baby on her back, right next to Twilight. They came through what seemed to be resting areas or lounges with large windows to the outside which provided lighting in these much narrower and darker corridors. The magical illumination was much dimmer and ponies wondered more than a few times if they had already passed the place they were.

Another thing that drew their attention was that the colorful 'new changelings' were nowhere to be seen now and they only saw the black carapaces they already knew. This picked at Twilight's curiosity even more and somewhat at her sensibilities that something was not exactly right, but she thought it was better to keep this in mind and worry about it later. This changeling that led them around the place seemed like he wouldn't be very useful anyway.

But every now and then they came to open doors beyond which changelings were working in construction and that enticed Twilight's ever some more.

"What are they doing?" She stopped for a while to look at changelings using picks to break up the rock and shaping it into round corners with their magic.

"We're building nurseries." Xipho said, uninterested.

"Oh?" Cadance asked, following him with Flurry Heart on her back as the baby looked around curiously. "To receive the new changelings?"

"No..." That changeling had a talent for speaking in the most uninterested tone possible and still sound condescending. It was annoying Twilight out of her mind. "We're going to put the old changelings the nurseries."

Cadance certainly didn't like the way he talked to them, but something more important was on her mind. "Wasn't the nursery in the lower levels? I seem to distinctively remember that, from when I visited it with Shinning Armor."

"Yes…" Xipho answered. "But we're building new ones. The old ones were converted into the Queen's Laboratory."

Something in the way he spoke made Twilight think that he dropped that last bit of information intentionally, just to make them curious. And it worked: she had no idea Chrysalis would have uses for any sort of laboratories. Or that she should be doing anything other than helping Thorax rule the changelings, for that matter.

"Hum… Wasn't Queen Chrysalis put on some sort of probation?" She asked Cadance, who looked as confused as she was. "For that matter what sort of laboratory would Chrysalis use, and for what?"

"Ma'am, my job is guarding doors and chaperoning nosy ponies around. Not to mention, it's not like you ponies would understand the Queen's magic anyways…"

Twilight and Cadance had had just about had enough of his bad behavior. They didn't need talking to each other to know they'd both discuss his demeanor with his queen and king. Even if the queen shouldn't be _queen regnant _anyways. Fluttershy however wanted nothing more than to see the new changelings. Flurry Heart was simply getting bored and wondered why her mother hadn't left her on the airship with her maid and her toys.

Not long after they arrived at the top of the spiraling corridors and reached a larger double black wood door flanked by two particularly big black changelings each armed with a long, double-bladed and curved sword they held point down to the floor with their magic. Twilight didn't remember seeing those before. These changelings were as big as Cadance and once again their magic senses flared up!

As they arrived the two guards looked at the princesses then at Xipho who walked in front of them, but they did their best not to look friendly. Still, before either could say anything, they heard a loud crashing noise and a bang from the other side. A loud and very, very angry female voice yelled. It didn't seem to be Chrysalis, though. It was softer, even in anger.

"This is all your fault! Yes! Yes, it is! Now get out of my sight before I miss it again!" Someone seemed to talk with a much more controlled and apologetical tone, but they couldn't make it out. "You can't see her now! Go get the cursed maids before I regret all of this! YES! NOW!"

The three princesses and pegasus simply stopped and their ears moved around as they listened to more shouts and apologetic words before another crash that scared them enough to flare their wings and make them jump backwards. The door opened to a dark room and Thorax came running out of it looking both scared witless and worried out of his mind.

"Come with me! We have to find the eggmaids! Oh! Hi Twilight! Can't talk! Bye!" He said tapdancing nervously where he stood and then ran past the visitors and down the corridor.

"Oh, there is the king." Xipho suddenly had a smile. "And there he went."

The two guards looked at each other and galloped after their king, leaving the ponies with Xipho.

"Can't we talk to Chrysalis?" Twilight asked sheepishly. "We only want permission to peruse the archives. All she has to say is one 'yes' or 'no' and we'll be gone, out of her mane forever."

Xipho regarded the three ponies and baby for a couple of seconds. Did he really want to deal with this? If he said that they can't, he'd have to deal with them. If he said that they can go inside, then they would cease to be his problem and would become someling else's problem. They'd be 'her' problem, and that in his head was a bonus. It was settled them.

"In you go." He gave them his best pleasant smile. "You'll see a nice changeling in there. Just talk to her and she'll set you straight. Alright?"

For some reason, Twilight thought that, considering the way he's been behaving, she ought to do the exact opposite. But then the records were just within hoof's reach. Not to mention that something is going on in this changeling nest and she ought to find out what it is. And also, another thing dawned on her mind: the Changeling Queen was laying her eggs. It was never, ever observed. She even had Fluttershy with her. It is a conjunction of almost impossible factors! There was no way she'd get this chance ever again!

For an instant she admonished herself over her overactive curiosity, but it was quickly overshadowed by that ominous feeling that something was wrong. It was her duty as a princess to seek out such problems in Equestria as much as it was her duty to protect her lands from monsters and yearly supervillains. Finally, there was the scholar inside Twilight that despaired at the notion of ignoring new and exciting knowledge.

For another instant she stared at her friends… Fluttershy was a fellow protector of Equestria, as much as Cadance who also was a fellow Princess and student of all that was Harmony and Magic.

Finally, she was sure Flurry Heart could use an example of proper 'princessing'. Or, something…

"Thank you, sir." She chirped happily and both Cadance and Fluttershy stared at her, completely surprised. Flurry Heart though was unimpressed. She could see Twilight was in the mood to do something she might regret later. In her short life she already had learned that imagination, plans and reality were things that didn't really go together.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, Twilight?" Fluttershy slowly asked her internally trying to understand if Twilight had a plan, or something.

"Sure!" Twilight smiled excitedly. "Chrysalis is our friend, isn't she? She'll understand!"

"She is?" Cadance was even more confused than Fluttershy. Sure she did think of the queen like that, but she wasn't sure it was reciprocal.

"Sure, she is! Shinny fathered the last brood, didn't he?" Twilight smiled.

"Well… Sure… But… Hum…" Cadance spoke slowly, trying to figure out what was going through Twilight's head. Flurry even puled at her mane, but it was to no avail. "I suppose… He did!"

"See? We're practically family!" Twilight smiled a huge grin, and her left ear flapped. "Think of all the things we could learn about the changelings!"

Flurry Heart facehoofed.

Cadance looked at Fluttershy, who seemed sheepishly excited. Maybe she understood what Twilight had in mind. "Alright. I suppose it's going to be fine."

Flurry facehoofed again.

And even if they decided against going in Xipho was gone anyway when Cadance looked around for him. Finally, she had to hurry after Twilight and Fluttershy through the open door.

Once they were past the door they squealed when it closed, and before the they could react further a strong gust of wind blew at them from nowhere and a big crystal in the ceiling shone fiercely, bathing them with a harsh white light. Again, they cried in surprise squirming and flapping wings in mild panic.

"What was that?" Cadance looked over herself and her heavily breathing foal.

"Cleansing spell!" Twilight was just as surprised, as another door opened, and they saw themselves staring into a clinically clean room and that quickly silenced them.

The polished obsidian shone like a mirror, and besides a door on the other side there was only a single large cushion made to look like a flower and sitting on that cushion was a very strange changeling. She looked like one of the 'new changelings', but was all white and silvery, with thin, translucent green wings, like a cape.

She had her back turned to the three ponies and her mane was the purest white Twilight had ever seen outside of Celestia's coat. The changeling carefully looked at five floating images in front of her. The sight alone piqued even more Twilight's curiosity and she approached closely followed by the other two and the disgruntled baby.

Twilight craned her neck staring at the floating images the changeling was looking at… Whatever she was looking at. Some graphs and some symbols, element names such as chlorine, sodium, oxygen… Questions popped in her head faster than she could process what she was looking at.

"Hello?" She said in the softest and friendliest voice she could muster, but the changeling shrieked loudly and caused the three ponies to retreat a couple of steps. When the changeling turned around heaving deep breaths they could see her wide shocked blue eyes and a pretty ornament on her forehead: a delicate spiraled and horned snake made of silver and held in place with by a thin chain around her delicate horn.

The group stared at the changeling, and she stared at them. Until she finally managed to gather her wits and breath. "What in the… Who… How! Who let you in?!"

She shrieked half-panicked and Twilight laughed awkwardly taking another step back. "His name was Xipho. Said we could see the queen."

The changeling apparently could only communicate by half-panicked shrieks. "NOLING CAN SEE THE QUEEN! Not you, not anyone. Not even the King!"

"Well… Hum… Can she give us permission to use the Archives?" Twilight asked tentatively. She knew she also wanted to snoop around at the queen and her hatchery. Maybe figuring out something about what was going on but, also in her mind she had equated the idea of the queen generating eggs that to Celestia raising the sun every morning and Luna bringing the night every evening. She knew she could barely contemplate how that must be important to the changelings. And that was why she thought it ought to be studied and witnessed. Even revered. Finally, everything could be connected.

"NO! You don't understand!" However, before the changeling could say anything more one of the five floating images flashed red and she let out a frustrated grunt.

"Stay here! I'll be right back! Don't touch anything, and for the love of the Queen do not, under no circumstances go through that door!" She shrieked as she pointed a simple door past the images.

And with that she galloped out in a hurry out the door they had come in.

Leaving them alone.

With the door they must never go through.

For a few instants, Twilight thought about how funny it was that the most forbidden things were also the most interesting to the curious minds. A short flash to her childhood made her grimace and reminded her that it was also the over-curious that met the switch most often.

Regardless, the door was right there! Why did fate have to be so cruel after tempting her with a mystery and showing her the way so bluntly?

Cadance and Fluttershy stared curiously at her as she breathed in and out, calmly recomposing her wits. She didn't have to snoop past that door! She had these curious magical image-thingies the changeling was looking at. Meanwhile Flurry Heart understood how Twilight must've been feeling. Certain impulses were hard to resist. Such as raiding the cookie jar before dinner.

Ignorant to the baby's empathy, Twilight approached the magical images, as did the others and Fluttershy's soft voice called to her. "Are they magic?"

"They are." Cadance confirmed, looking over to them. "Twilight?"

"These are simple illusions coupled with divination spells." The purple one lighted up her horn and looked around. "The casinos in Las Pegasus are using this sort of thing to monitor gaming tables for cheaters. But these are much more sophisticated, and I've never seen anything like them before."

"Why do they need this sort of thing?" The other princess looked back at her. "And can you understand anything?"

If there was one thing Twilight didn't think she'd be doing that day was deciphering changeling writing. Sure, she understood almost all languages spoken and/or written in her time, and several ancient ones, but she was encountering symbols and words she didn't understand mixed with things she did, all seemingly belonging to the semantics and morphology of the changeling written language. It was like the changelings had created a jargon of words for things the ponies didn't yet know. And it both titillated and worried her.

Her heart pounded in her chest and her breath quickened. Numbers, element symbols, beeping sounds, oscillating bar graphs… It was maddening that she understood some, but not enough to piece together whatever that was. She felt as though understanding was just outside of her reach and it frustrated her beyond reason.

Then she squeaked in surprise as another of the magical images started flashing yellow, making a beeping sound. It showed several graphs, one of which seemed to peak above the others, but the names under the bars made no sense to her. Twilight leaned closer, and tentatively, her right hoof approached the flashing image and touched it, as she tried to understand what the things it was showing meant.

Her hoof barely touched it.

It blinked once.

And the Door-They-Must-Not-Pass opened.

The princess shrieked quietly, as quietly as one should do when trying to steal cookies from the jar. "Oh no! I did something I shouldn't!"

Nothing but a dark room beyond the door, as they approached it, Twilight in front, followed by Fluttershy, softly whinnying, and Cadance, grimacing like she was about to see a monster past the door. Finally, Twilight spoke softly. "Maybe we should see if something broke…?"

"You're just curious, Twilight." Cadance said in a semi-accusatory way, even though she was just as curious and as likely to go snoop around. Both ignorant to Flurry Heart's desperate attempts to draw their attention.

True, Twilight was curious. But she felt compelled to investigate whatever the changelings were doing. She also was intruding. Maybe abusing her position to sate her curiosity. And she had her niece in tow!

In that moment when she almost decided against going in it occurred to her that maybe the reason why some changelings looked like their old selves might be hidden in there. It occurred to her that Chrysalis could be hiding something from Princess Celestia, and if that had anything to do with the way the changelings looked. It could be something dangerous… Their research be damned, this was a priority.

"We have to see…" She stared at Cadance.

"Maybe, we should wait for King Thorax?" Fluttershy trembled a little.

"Chrysalis could be hiding something." Twilight added. "The black changelings should have turned into the colorful ones, shouldn't they?"

Cadance frowned a little at that. "Well, now that you mention it…"

"Not to mention that if there is nothing wrong, she can simply let us see the archives and we can move on with our research."


	3. The Gentlestalion's Club

It was a nice and comfy place with a large window on one side. The counter was long and had many seats starting next to the window and coming towards the entrance, and behind it, near the ceiling, was a wooden plaque shaped like a shield that had a carved image of an alicorn sitting on a large and comfortable chair while smoking a pipe. Around the shield a scripture read 'Chocolate Velvet's Gentlestallion's Club'.

The whole of the walls, ceiling and floor where covered in caramel wood and all furnishings had a wooden and velvety decoration to them following in the lines of greens, whites, gold and bronze. There were several tables, some of them occupied by colorful changelings appreciating several drinks, green velveted cards tables, a roulette and a billiard table, dice tables, domino tables. A dartboard on one of the walls and an old changeling was playing saxophone on a small stage, but the prevalent sound was that of cups, laughter and friendly banter. It wasn't too crowded though: it was an exclusive club, after all.

In one corner, a strange group of one unicorn dressed with a purple cloak, an old and scary looking griffon, two earth ponies, one wearing a leather armor and with a crossbow on his back, and the other wearing an armor, all around a table, with paper sheets, pencils and dice.

Other than that, a thin haze of smoke accompanied the smell from scented cigars, pipes and similar smoking devices.

"Whoa… What is this place?" Spike followed the changeling and the unicorn into it. "It looks great!"

"This," Pharynx said calmly as they walked. "Is the Changeling Rock's very own Chocolate Velvet's Gentlestallion's Club. You have no idea how hard it was to build this place."

"Why?" he followed the others to the counter.

"Because Chrysalis would throw a fit if she knew we were building a male's club inside her nest." The changeling answered and they sat at the bar one next to the other. "And I think Thorax would freak out too."

"Why? Was it too expensive?" Spike looked around to the tables seeing changelings laughing and talking to each other, but also at the fine woods and fine velvet tapestry. Such as the large curtains framing the big window. The bar itself was very beautiful, made of the same noble wood. Chess tables had metallic and shiny playing pieces, the cards in the game tables were all personalized with the likeness of 'changeling things', including the changeling king and queen, and the king's brother for face cards. Spike could imagine Discord for Joker. It would be too obvious not to do it. Looked awesome.

"It sure looks expensive." He finally said, looking back at the others.

"Nah." Shining Armor signaled to the barling. "The Prince-Consort helps fund these bars. There's one in the Crystal Empire, in Canterlot, Manehattan, Philly, Las Pegasus, even on Cloudsdale."

Pharynx seemed to relax once he had sat himself on the stool. "I hear the griffon king is trying to get one on Griffinsky. But I'm not sure."

"Why not?" Spike looked at Pharynx now. "I'm sure Princess Celestia would be happy to assist, with all the drama going on with the griffons. Why don't they have it already? The Chancellor should have had one built already."

"Well… For one, he's not really king yet and there is a civil war. Sort of… I'm sure the Chancellor has other things in mind, such as preparing an attack to end this whole mess he's got in his hands. And this club thing is kind of a secret." Shining explained. "It's male only, and the less females know about it, the better."

"Oooh… A secret! Even from Princess Celestia?" The dragon said, holding on to the bar, with huge eyes. "Cool! Nice of you guys to share it with me!"

"Sure, buddy!" Shining bumped his hoof with Spike's closed fist as the barling came to them.

A simple black changeling with a red black-spotted carapace, wearing a white apron. He also had a moustache. A weird, black and whisker-like moustache. But still a moustache. "Hello, friends."

"White Mountain Mead. Chilled." Pharynx made a gesture with a hoof to emphasize as he looked at the available selection behind the counter. "Unicorn's buying."

"Blueblood Chardoneigh." Shining said with a leg behind Spike's shoulders. "And some soft cider for our buddy."

"Hey, c'mon! You bring me to a place like this and want me to drink cider?" The purple dragon protested standing up.

"You do look quite young, sir." The changeling behind the bar said, making his moustache flail around.

"I'm a dragon!" Spike pointed at his chest with a thumb. "I can take it!"

"Yeah… I'm sure you could, Spike. But I couldn't take Twilight if she ever suspected I let you drink something stiff." Shining frowned, followed by the Changeling.

"It's Sweet Apple Acres cider." He showed the glass bottle with the red apple. "Finest soft cider in Equestria!"

"Eh… Fine…" Spike relented and sat back down as the changeling went to get their drinks. "So… Why, exactly, a secret?"

"When you grow up, Spike…" Shining had a thoughtful and prophetic tone. "And start dating girls. You'll see that they are awesome. But we need a place where we can retreat and just be with ourselves for a while. You know?"

"Hum…" The dragon said with a hand on his chin, looking around the place. "I think I get it… But I see some girls around."

"They work here." Pharynx had his elbows on the counter. "The Prince-Consort recruited most of them."

"So… Then… What is the difference between them and the other girls?" Spike was curious and eager to learn, staring at his two new-found mentors on gentlemanly things.

"They don't talk about problems, for one." Shining explained calmly. "And they look pretty."

"Aha. I see!" Spike winked conspiratorially at him, and next the changeling brought their drinks. Wasting no time, they toasted and took a sip. "So, you really need some rest from Cadance?"

"Look at it from this perspective, Spike: the Prince-Consort lives with Princesses Celestia and Luna. And he made this place. Well… It was an idea he got from his original world… But still…"

Spike simply nodded thoughtfully, trying to assimilate the idea, but it hadn't quite clicked in place yet. He got it that the guys needed a place to… Be guys for a while. And talk about stuff they may not want to talk in front of the ladies. He certainly got that too. But he still didn't get that thing about talking about problems…

Meanwhile, Pharynx spoke again. "So… What is this the princesses want here, Shining Armor?"

"Cadance found an old weird letter and got it into her head that she needed to figure out some things about it. Then she recruited Twilight, and she poured even more oil into it." Shining laid his glass on the bar. "You see, Spike? This is the sort of thing I'm talking about. With them you and your kid call your wife to bed then go on a trip to see your sister and end up in a changeling nest looking for climate records and a griffon emperor that may not even have existed."

"Yeah… I get ya…" Spike said thoughtfully with memories of his daily life with Twilight coming back like a flood as the pieces finally clicked together. "You know? Ponyville needs a place like this."

"Well, I'm sure you could talk to the Prince-Consort." The bar changeling wiped a big beer glass with a white cloth. "Since you can easily to go to Canterlot, being who you are."

"Ah… It's not that easy. When we go to Canterlot, Twilight usually needs me on duty." Spike was more and more convinced Ponyville needed a place like this. Then he casually turned on his stool, longingly staring at the rest of the place until he saw someone approaching. "Whoa! Ocellus!"

"Hi Spike! Nice seeing you!" She approached carrying a tray with game chips on her back and put it on the counter, then spoke to the barling. "We need more beer on the craps table, Mister Coccinelli."

The barling nodded and went to care for the order before Spike talked to her again and the other two watched. "What are you doing here, Ocellus?"

"Well, a new brood is coming, so we're all supposed to be here. I also need to pay for my tuition, so I'm working during vacations!" She said rather excitedly. "It's fun! Gallus gave me the idea!"

"Uh… It's free." She blinked twice, looking confused at Spike. "Tuition is free at the School of Friendship, Ocellus."

"What? But…." She looked confused for a while more, and then her eyes showed understanding and a little irritation. "Oh… Gallus…"

"Griffons, man…" Spike slowly shook his head and drank a sip of his cider. "It was a good prank though!"

Twlilight had imagined a nice lounging room, with lots of space and a comfy large bed where the queen would be laying. Large windows would let the sunlight in, and Chrysalis would receive all sorts of pampering from changelings. Maybe eating some refreshing fruit while other changelings carried the eggs, probably white little balls, or something, elsewhere. Maybe a small group of changelings playing a nice and relaxing song.

As soon as she saw that the door led to a dark room, she had imagined it was a sort of atrium, to separate the queen's chambers from that changeling's workstation. Considering the way they heard her yelling at Thorax it was probably to protect the queen's serenity from such sort of rackets. It made sense in her head.

What happened in reality was that Twilight stepped into the dark room followed by the others and instead of a peaceful atrium they saw themselves on a bridge made of the same obsidian. It bridged the space between two circular walls, and she couldn't see very well because it was so dark, but she was sure they were on a bridge and that it was a rather large fall on both sides with a ball-like structure ahead. A soft breeze blew around the place carrying with it an acid smell.

"So, I suppose we cross the bridge?" Cadance spoke softly as if she was afraid to wake some monster that guarded the place. "This place smells odd."

"I think it's chlorine." Twilight looked down past the edge. "I think there is a pool full of it under us. But I can't see."

The ponies wasted no time in crossing the bridge and Twilight felt like her suspicions that this place existed to protect the queen from the noises outside were validated. In fact, she felt a pang of worry considering if she should even be there, but she had gone too far to go back now.

The other princess and the pegasus followed Twilight closely and their hoofsteps sounded weird in this place. The constant breeze unnerved them, seeming unnatural and the two princesses could feel magic at work. Nothing fancy tough: it seemed that it only served to keep the air from stagnating.

Soon they reached the passage into the inner wall. Now the ambient felt humid and had a stronger sour, acidy smell. The floor was still the same rocky, solid glass-like substance, but it was covered in a thin layer of thick liquid that made splashy noises at every hoofstep. They were submerged in complete darkness and the breeze had ceased.

"Ew, gross!" Cadance started shaking her hoof. Fluttershy was torn between her curiosity and fear. Twilight was completely surrendered to her curiosity. And Flurry Heart had resigned herself to sit on her mother's back, internally angry but saying nothing, bidding her time until she could actually say anything. One day her mother would be angry at her for entering somewhere she wasn't supposed, and she would triumphantly remind her of this day.

"Can you feel it?" Twilight waved her horn around in the dark like an antenna. "It's magic. All over."

"Yeah…" Cadance answered softly, a little intimidated. "It's… Powerful."

Not only magic, but very clearly the queen's magic. Powerful enough that they could feel it crawling in their manes.

"Uh… Hello? Is anypony there?" With no answer Twilight's horn shone a small light at its tip and bathed the room in its purple glow. They were in a thin and long, circular corridor that went both ways like it was circling an inner circular room and the walls were made of a thick glass-like irregular resin that looked like it was hoof molded into the wall, different from the rock.

"What is this place?" Cadance whinnied worriedly, but Twilight's curiosity was in full swing and Fluttershy cowered behind the purple princess, yet at the same time hoofed curiously at the floor and its layer of… Something.

"I think it's a sort of incubation chamber. This is fascinating. Did she make this all by herself?" Fluttershy said finally, and Twilight started walking along the circular wall touching the irregular glass-like wall with a wing tip.

"What is this made of?" She asked curiously.

"I don't think I wanna know! Twilight? Eep!" Cadance skipped as fast as she dared next to Twilight, following her around in a low stance, eyeing the walls and arched ceiling as if some monster was about to jump on her back. Even Flurry Heart was starting to get worried by that point.

Fluttershy, taken by a professional curiosity had forgotten her fear and critically smelled and hoofed at the substance on the floor and walls. "It could be some sort of saliva, or some sort of mucus. Like the slime slugs make to crawl. Even a little urine."

"It's not urine. It's ammonia." Twilight said. "Careful you don't breathe it too deeply: it's stronger than that stuff outside. Isn't it weird that changeling larvae would thrive in a place like this?"

"Well, if they were ponies…" Fluttershy mused. "I don't think this is a healthy place for a baby pony."

'No shit, Shirelock…' Flurry thought to herself, however when her mother looked back at her worryingly, the baby waved a hoof saying she was fine.

"So, how come changeling foals can live like this, Fluttershy?" Cadance asked, now becoming curious again.

The yellow pegasus hummed lightly. "Well, different species have different needs as much as they are vulnerable to different things. Changelings probably have chlorine and ammonia in their blood. In larger quantities than we do, and they probably perform some job on their bodies."

"So, changelings have bleach and ammonia for blood. Wonderful." Cadance was on the brink of freaking out again when they circled the inner wall and their conversation didn't help, but she went on with them. Soon they came to an area where a green glow came from an archway to the inner room and Twilight moved forward. Scared out of her wits, Cadance held one of her wings in front of her eyes while holding the briefcase under the other, followed close and while at that, Fluttershy critically hoofed at a wall, looking closely at the substance that flacked off.

Coming to the archway, the first thing they saw was an eerie green glow that came from the vaulted ceiling bathing the whole room in an eerie and alien light reflecting off the resin walls like they were inside a dim and sinister green sun. Initially, it was too hard to see and the light was too bright, blinding them unable of distinguishing anything more than a vague form or two and all that registered with their senses where their own breaths, a constant and incessant dripping, the smells and a fleshy noise of something moving around.

"What was that?" Cadance barely muttered the question under her breath, all but hiding behind Twilight who hissed softly, moving her ears around. One step forward and her hoof found the thick liquid, but not the floor. She almost screamed, but Cadance held her. In shock, Twilight let go of the shine in her horn and a few instants later their surroundings started to become clear as the blinding green light subdued.

The floor was littered by green shinny eggs, some five hooves tall, supported on the ground by a thick resin and that pulsated slightly with fleshy sounds while diminutive dark shades moved within them against the green glow, all clustered together. Inside a surrounding disk of floor near the walls was a hole. A deep pool which shone with the same green light from the eggs. From its depth rose a large resin structure in the center of the room. Then they saw that the fleshy sounds didn't come from the eggs themselves, but from a large translucent and bloated 'thing'! Like they had never seen before. It moved around in a noisy peristalsis like a giant slug hung to the ceiling by several resin chords, moving forward eggs within, and that it delicately placed on the floor covered in green slime out of a fleshy and long tube.

Flutthershy frowned thoughtfully and rubbed her chin with her hoof. "Hum… I'm pretty sure I saw this somewhere. Was it in a theater? Or in a book?"

Mouths agape, the others held their breaths, trying not to think of all the things the image reminded them of while their wide-opened eyes took in the sight in front of them, and followed back the thin pulsating sack full of eggs to its source in the center and above the pool, upon which sat the Changeling Queen herself. Her gnarly horn shone with the creepy green light, part warm, part cold, all alien changeling magic. She had her eyes half-closed as if in a trance, with slow and deep laborious breaths, shown by a large abdomen filled with tinny shinny eggs. Her large body was held by thick strands of green resin and organic tubes that entered her neck and joint areas of her black velvety carapace on her legs. Filled with liquids and pulsating like they were blood vessels that found their way outside her body and stuck to the ceiling, which was itself covered in a large cluster of wiry and pulsating flesh and dripping a thick goo, like a cathedral of creepy.

"Oh… My…" Twilight murmured and took a step backwards, bumping into Cadance's legs, who stared at the queen like she had forgotten she can move and breath, with her wings flared, all while Fluttershy held her own face in her hooves and stared in wonder.

It was a loud wet bang that reverberated on the resin walls when the briefcase Cadance was carrying under her wing hit the floor. All four ponies winced in terror as if it announced the end of the world and stared at the large, familiar yet at the same time alien creature in front of them.

The queen's eyes shone like a green flame, sluggishly opening, unfocused and glassy. Her mouth opened slowly, gradually showing terrifyingly sharp and brightly white teeth, reflecting the green light as she drew a deep and noisy breath then, slowly let go of it. Her body stirred, and the resin creaked under the weight as her legs lazily unfolded, pulling at her… 'Outside blood vessels', for lack of a better term. Her nostrils flared and drew in air as her throat grunted like it was slowly opening.

The three adults were already at the brink of panic when the light from her horn evanesced, leaving only the dim light from the eggs and the corners of her mouth drew back in a fierce and unpleasant predatorial grimace. Her eyes finally focused, bright green and draconian, falling right upon the purple alicorn.

Twilight simply let out a small 'squeak' and flopped limply to the ground. Cadance screamed and Fluttershy still stared, mesmerized.

"Issy!" Said Flurry Heart, putting up her little hooves and giggling happily.

On her side, all the queen could feel was a headache coming, as soon as she saw Twilight Sparkle. It didn't keep her from striking at them with a magic blast. Not flurry Heart, though… That one Chrysalis liked. Her magic rocked the whole room with a rumble and a bright green wave of pure changeling magic. Some heads were going to roll for this, but for now her green telekinesis lifted the baby towards herself and her predatorial grin turned to a softer shade of mischievous.

"Hi kid. Nice seeing you again."

The baby, of course, giggled and pawed at her face.

Shining Armor slammed a hoof against the counter speaking a bit too loudly. "And then she said we couldn't have one because these new airships are too expensive! Because we didn't need one and they were a fad… Can you believe her? Too expensive… A fad…"

Around them, the bar still had its welcoming and cozy atmosphere. The old changeling playing saxophone had been replaced by another old changeling, but this one was playing the piano. The games went on and the roleplaying changelings now had what appeared to be a changeling queen with a black cloak and a spork the changeling used as royal scepter as she ordered the other players around. Some things that never seemed to run out in the bar were beers and playing chips. Even Ocellus had to leave the group and go back to work.

"Well, they kinda are…" Pharynx argued, toying with his cup on the counter.

"Ponyfeathers!" The unicorn said letting his glass rest on the counter. "How can you say they're a fad?! They're useful! Besides, we're royalty. We need, as Rarity said, powers of representation. Not to mention! As soon as she saw Twilight's ship she decided she wanted one!"

"I see what you mean, sir." The barling said friendly, listening to their conversation.

"You just want an airship because they're cool." Spike held his chin on his hand while his elbow rested on the counter.

"Aren't they, though? Just look at Twilight's cutter!" Shinning pointed at the window, irrespective of the airship actually being visible or not. "Just imagine what Princess Celestia is doing to her old ship!"

"Well, you may be right, Shining." Pharynx said mindlessly hoofing around the bar his empty cup, a little bored with the conversation the unicorn had been holding for a little too long. "Those things are fine, I suppose. But it's not like you really, really need one."

"Well…" Said the white unicorn. "Would I die if I never got an airship? No. But! But it would make me very happy if I did have one. Why, you might ask. I will tell you why! It's because they are ships! And they are flying. They are flying ships! Ships that fly! In the air! Like! How awesome is that?!"

"I think you may have had a little too much to drink, Shining Armor…" Spike still held his head on his hand over the bar.

"Well, the Prince is correct in saying that these ships are pretty nice to look at." The barling said, again friendly. "Not to mention that they can be very useful."

"You see?" Shinning pointed a hoof at the barling. "You hearing that? He understands. Cheers, man. If I could, I'd give you one! You understand why everypony should have an airship! They are so much fun too! Why just another day, I read this article… It was a Playcolt article, and it was about these airships! And the writer knew what he was talking about! You see: Fancypants ordered one of those…"

Spike held his giggling and Pharynx rested his face on the counter while Shining Armor explained in rich detail why is it that, in that writer's opinion any high-class male of the Equestrian society should own a private airship, including descriptions of photos of Fancypants and his wife aboard their airship. Shinning Armor, of course, being himself a high-class male of the Equestrian society.

Then the door to the pub opened and in came Starlight Glimmer wearing a costume made from black garbage bags calmly trotting towards the bar and carrying Flurry Heart in her magic, while the baby was wearing some weird white baby clothing.

"Hey guys." She said happily and Flurry greeted them too.

"Huh?" Spike was as surprised as were Shining Armor and Pharynx, staring at the pony, her costume and the baby and her own costume.

"There you go, here is daddy!" She said as she delivered Flurry Heart to Shining Armor, who took her in his hooves still staring at her costume.

"Is this a… Changeling larva costume?" He looked at the baby he held the baby in his hooves.

Starlight used her magic to get rid the garbage bags she had covered herself with as she spoke cheerfully and sat next to them, signaling the barling with a stiff raised hoof. "Sure is! They're selling three Bits each! Hi Spike!"

"Uh… What are you doing here? And why is Flurry Heart disguised as a changeling larva?" Shining asked a bit stunned, a bit on the defensive, enough to have recovered from the effects of alcohol. Though he wasn't entirely sure if he wasn't dreaming and Princess Luna wouldn't pop in through the window and proceed to chastise him over drinking while going out with Cadance and the baby.

"First of all, it's fine!" She calmly showed them a small brooch on her hoof that mimicked the bar's emblem. "I'm 'in'."

"But…" Shinning didn't distrust her, yet he was a little worried. "What about the others?"

"Ah, they're not. Geez…" She laughed a little. "Can you imagine Twilight knowing about a place like this? Rarity might be, though… She's high class."

"But… No. That's not what I mean! Where are the others?" He insisted. "Why isn't Flurry Heart with Cadance? And Where are Cadance and Twilight?"

"Ah. They're with Twilight." She grabbed the big glass of beer that came sliding down the counter and took a sip, smiling happily. Changeling beer was good! "They've been arrested for disturbing the queen while she was laying eggs."

Shining blinked a couple of times. Maybe the drinks had dimmed his mind for a while. "What?"

"Did you say they were arrested?" Spike too was having trouble believing it. "How do you even arrest a princess? Where are they?!"

"Yep." Another generous sip went down. "I'm sure the Queen knows how, and they're in a dungeon down below. There are some cells and interrogation rooms… You know… A Dungeon."

"Then why didn't they arrest you?!" Spike opened his arms in a noticeable level of distress, standing on his stool.

"They did, but I took Flurry and snuck out." She said calmly. "They put Twilight and Cadance in a magic-resistant cell. But put me with the others in a normal cell."

"They put _you_ on a normal cell?" Pharynx stared blankly at her. Someling was soon to be in a heap of trouble this. That unicorn has been on Chrysalis' List for a couple of years before they allied with the ponies.

"Sorry… The Intelligence Department really dropped the ball on this one. I dressed her like that, disguised me as a changeling and came here." She looked at him with a worried frown. "You're not going to arrest me, are you?"

He sighed. "No… It's not worth it. Just stay here till they're free and it's fine. How did noling stop you with that disguise?"

"Yeah!" Spike agreed. "You were literally wearing garbage bags!"

"Well, I think they saw I wasn't a changeling… But I also think they preferred to not get involved…" She said, gesturing from one side to the other with her hooves.

"Disguise by weirdness…" Shining said nonchalantly. "That is a new one. Gotta teach that to our spies…"

"I asked Thorax to talk to Chrysalis and calm her down. I also asked to not get the Princess involved."

"We already have two princesses involved." Spike showed her two fingers, watching as she drank.

"You know… 'The' Princess." Starlight Glimmer had decided that she preferred to spare her teacher. Poor Twilight would hear about this from her old teacher forever if it reached her.

Twilight woke slowly, with a harsh and acute pain on the side of her head. She moaned pathetically and curled into a ball, trying to fend off the painful throbbing in her head, instinctively massaging her temples with her hooves.

"Wake up already!" Came the anxious shout and she fell off the bed she was in with a panicked scream. When she hit the hard floor, she was almost sure she had broken her horn off.

"Ow… What…" As she reoriented herself, she saw that she was next to Cadance, who helped her on to her hooves. They were in a small room with, literally a pile of hay. At least their bathroom seemed to be a separated room and they each had a 'bed' which amounted to a pony sized block of stone.

Wait a second. She was in a cell!

She turned to the bars, where the strange white-silvery changeling was looking at them. That moment Twilight felt a sharp pain in her forehead and yelped in surprise as her vision blurred and sounds seemed distant. Instinctively she shook her head to ease the pain.

"Twilight!" Cadance touched her with a friendly hoof.

"Careful! You're wearing a magic inhibitor ring!" The changeling actually sounded worried now, instead of furiously shrieking all the time. She had her hooves wrapped around the bars, sitting on the other side and looking at the pair through them. "The Queen has ordered you arrested for interfering with the Spawning Pool. Hum… King Thorax tried to intervene, but me yelling at him earlier may have intimidated him a little…"

"Spawning pool?" Twilight slowly regaining her bearings again and quickly moved closer to the bars. She was somewhat shocked. That changeling sounded like a completely different changeling now that she wasn't yelling in panic all the time.

The changeling nodded positively. "She'll come talk to you as soon as she is done. Meanwhile, I'm afraid you'll have to remain here."

Then it occurred to Twilight that the changeling was likely calmer and friendlier now because there weren't nosy intruders at her workstation and what likely was the most important thing that ever happens in the hive wasn't in danger because of some entitled princess. Having come to her senses, Twilight had her priorities straight this time. A cold hand of fright grasped her stomach as she realized that if the changelings were that worried, she could've caused the death of an infant even before it had a chance at life! "Please! Say we didn't hurt her! Or the eggs!"

"It took a few additional precautions, but…" The changeling shook her head. "The queen's magic protected them from any pathogens or extraneous magic."

Twilight breathed a little easier. She could deal with being arrested, but not with causing the death of a changeling infant. Not after all that the Queen and the Princess had achieved. "Did we… Did we really put the new changelings in danger?"

"Well… Not that much. But there are reasons only the queen can be at the Spawning Pool." She started gesticulating with her hooves. "You see… The pool has substances that the queen produces that will inform the eggs what caste the changeling inside them should be. And we can't know for sure what would happen if strange substances made their way into the pool and affect concentration ratios. It could generate inviable spawnlings that wouldn't fully differentiate. It's a complicated science. Quite a bit more than pony embryology."

The changeling lowered her head. "Hum… We… We die a lot. Our bodies don't function in the same ways as yours. The same magic that makes things work right with you doesn't work very well with us, and so we need to take all sorts of precautions to ensure the least possible are stillborn. That is why we were dying, and the Queen signed the Heartmend Treaty… Princess Cadance's magic reinvigorated us."

For a brief instant Twilight realized that the more she listened, the more the whole legend about Mother Farfalla made sense, but that was no time to think of legends and she was shocked at the revelation.

"That's horrible!" Twilight was shocked and so was Cadance, but the older one let her sister-in-law maintain the conversation, only listening and paying attention. "I never knew any of that. I thought that we had healed you. Like… Completely. And that is why changelings were becoming colorful and happy."

The changeling looked at her with a weird expression. "Those are the worker castes. The black ones belong to the military castes."

"Wait!" Suddenly Twilight remembered some important things. "Where are Fluttershy and Flurry Heart?"

Cadance answered calmly, sitting in the middle of the cell. "Fluttershy is with the others in another cell. Flurry Heart is with Shining Armor. Apparently, he was with Pharynx and he attested Shinny didn't do anything wrong."

"Your friend, Starlight Glimmer, appeared somewhere with the baby and gave her to her Prince Shining Armor. I think she escaped or noling captured her. I don't know." The doctor shrugged.

"I have to go now. There is a lot of work pending the laying of the new eggs. I need to coordinate the other eggmaidens and the Queen is going to be furious if things don't go perfectly."

Having said that, she awkwardly left and closed a door behind her, leaving the two ponies alone with each other.

"Goodness. Are you hurt, Cadance?" Twilight turned to her.

"I'm fine. Chrysalis hit us with a pretty hard magical attack." Then she grinned at Twilight. "After you flopped to the floor like a ragdoll, that is."

The other laughed sarcastically. "Do you think she's too angry?"

"I'd imagine she's furious." Cadance frowned. "I hope we learned a lesson today."

"Fine. I know what I did was wrong." Twilight nodded with a large dose of frustration. "But my intentions were good. I hope she isn't too angry. Enough to keep us out of the archives."

"I hope she's not angry enough to complain to Princess Celestia!" Twilight hadn't even thought of that and after hearing Cadance her fur stood a little on her back.

While they were talking, they didn't hear the door opening, but one of the changeling soldiers approached them, talking rudely as he opened the cell with a large key. "Sparkle, you're wanted in the interrogation room."

"What about me?" Cadance touched her chest with a hoof."

"Just the short one."

"I'm not short!" She flared her wings, I a bit of an immature fit.

The changeling simply looked at the two, one next to the other. "Looks short to me."

She grunted but didn't answer. Instead looked at the lock the changeling had opened. Twilight knew those… The lock was enchanted in such a way that if any magic, at all, interfered, it wouldn't open. It only opened with the normal key-lock mechanism. But, anyway, she went out while Cadance kept staring, and then she followed the changeling, after he locked the door again.

They went down the corridor, past a door and past a bend, passing in front of a larger cell (it had more than one piles of hay and more stony beds) where Twilight's friends were. They called to her and she stopped.

"Girls!" She stopped by the bars, and Applejack approached.

"Why exactly have we been arrested?" The farmpony asked inquisitively. "I don't remember doing anything wrong!"

"Unless looking at the decoration is wrong…" Rainbow Dash said sarcastically, from the back.

Twilight huffed. "Apparently, the changelings have very strict regulations about access to the 'spawning pool'."

Applejacks's raised eyebrow didn't seem convinced and Twilight sighed deeply. "I went into a place I shouldn't have and now I'm in trouble and they brought you in too because the queen is angry and military changelings are jerks."

Rarity harrumphed. "At least we can find solace in the fact that everypony is well."

Finally, Twilight huffed again. "Sorry girls. It's all my fault."

"That's alright, Twilight!" Pinkie chirped happily, indifferent to all the angry ponies around her. "We know how you are!"

At least she got a few laughs off them. At Twilight's expense, sure, but still…

The changeling soldier let out a derisive chuckle asked as he pushed Twilight along. "Let's go pony… I don't get paid by the hour."

Twilight didn't have time for much more and resigned to following the changeling soldier down the long corridor. It was dark and it was cold. It was scary and it was the kind of place that gave wings to the imagination in the worst possible ways. Fortunately, Twilight was well aware of that. Not only that, but Twilight understood herself and her own fears. She may still fall prey to her curiosity and scientific searches, but her fears were another thing. And she once read a book about resisting torture.

Throughout her career as Princess Celestia's apprentice. No. As her Most Prized Pupil. Her Most Beloved Student, her protegee, and then, as Princess of Friendship, a Princess of Equestria, she has had a career as a scholar and as a mage, not to mention as a principal in her very own School of Friendship! She liked to think it mimicked Celestia's own school of magic for talented unicorns or even Luna's orphanage. Her work might not be on the level of the legendary, but it was pretty damn impressive.

Throughout her career she fought and defeated all sorts of monsters and terrors, including, but not limited to dragons, chimeras, hydras, evil goddesses possessed with sorrow, mad gods of chaos, ancient tyrant kings, centaur necromancers, giant snakes, evil creepy monsters, ponies possessed by evil spirits, ponies possessed by dangerous artifacts, draconian contracts, shady salesponies, government officials, the Canterlot Society for the Good Manners of Royalty, taxes, the training regimen of Royal Guards, Rainbow Dash's training regimen, sparring sessions with the other princesses and taking care of Flurry Heart. Not necessarily in that order.

Throughout all that there were only three things that she feared. The first were quesadillas. Well, she didn't really fear quesadillas, but she simply could not ignore their… Cheesy, oily, character. Cheese was delicious, but quesadillas corrupted cheese in the same way Discord corrupted the minds of ponies! One day, she would convince Princess Celestia of the horror they wrought upon Equestria and then, they would be banished!

The second thing she feared most was her mother. Not that Miss Twilight Velvet was a bad pony. Not by any meaning of the word, quite the contrary actually. Her mother was a loving and caring pony, and that is what usually got Twilight and Shining Armor without fault. Whenever they misbehaved, she would cry! It made them feel worse than if she had picked up a switch and beat their flanks off already.

Of course, there was the thing she feared the most. Disappointing Princess Celestia. One could think that she would fear disappointing her mother first, but Princess Celestia employed a particularly evil form of 'motherly punishment'. First of all, there was the first layer, the most obvious… Twilight didn't want to disappoint her because the Princess invested in her. She put her faith in Twilight. Second, she could decide Twilight's future. Wherever or not Twilight would progress, stagnate or regress in her studies. In the earlier years of her tutelage this was particularly scary to Twilight until she grew more confident when… Never. Twilight admitted she was still terrified of disappointing her eternal tutor. She might in fact be doing that right now, considering she could have ended with the Heartmend Treaty due to her curiosity.

No, don't think about it. It was all about her academical interest in the Changeling spawning process. It sounded better that way. And possibly an investigation of mismanagement.

But finally there was the third layer of her mentor's, educational practices. Princess Celestia brokered no quarter for misbehaving foals. While she would understand frustrated foals that misbehaved out of emotional immaturity, she would tolerate no tantrum, and was a firm believer of the 'spare the rod, spoil the foal' mentality. And considering Twilight's obstinate nature, her childish-self tested her limits many times. None of those times intentionally, one should understand, but out of the boundless curiosity of an intelligent and perspicacious mind. But the terrible thing about it, was that hurting Twilight hurt the princess even more, which hurt Twilight and it all became a pathetic cycle, worse than death itself!

Come to think of it, the Princess did incentivize Twilight to be curious. Just not to cross her limits. Which is exactly what she did with the Spawning Pool, and now she was going to face the consequences of her imprudent choices. While Twilight didn't think she needed to fear the switch or even the magical kindergarten anymore it was very possible that the Princess could revoke her title!

Twilight had her doubts if Princess Celestia could do that but then, maybe she could, since she always seemed to have her way in the political scenario of Equestria. And without her title Twilight would be shamed as the first princess ever to become a princess and then lose her title! Her family would be shamed! Her friends would be shamed! Her whole town would be shamed! Her school! Her students!

What is worse is that because of her being the cause to all of this the princess would let Chrysalis do anything she wanted to her so that she could protect the treaty!

She could see as clear as day the Princess' deathly sad expression as she was forced to turn a blind eye to whatever Chrysalis decided to do with Twilight a shame on itself and it was all because Twilight had to behave like a foal raiding a cookie jar before dinner!

Finally, Twilight realized this whole line of thought ended up in the diametrical opposite of where she wanted it to go.

Right now, of course instead of mentally preparing for whatever the changelings had in store for her she saw herself standing in front of a simple door and she shook like she was a small filly in front of the Princess' office expecting to be sent home, never to return to the Princess' school and having her entire future denied to her.

What would the changelings do to her? There were several ways to torture a pony and all of them made Twilight's skin crawl and stomach turn. After what she saw in the Spawning Pool she imagined some creepy biological horror, rusted torture instruments, magical parasites that forced their way into your muzzle and crawled around in your brain looking for information, magical batteries, or pure and simple pliers…

She was about to scream but steeled herself while the changeling escorting her stared curiously at the purple alicorn sweating by the gallons and hyperventilating like she was about to have a heart attack. He pushed the door, it opened, and it was just Queen Chrysalis sitting behind a desk with a plateful of quesadillas.

Twilight stared at her and she ate one of those things, holding it in her magical telekinesis. She bit at the thing and that disgusting, greasy cheese escaped from every little hole in the tortilla. It looked like a yellow greasy slime, running down the sides of her mouth and, to add insult to injury, it had bacon and minced meat.

She screamed inside and decided that she hated Chrysalis.


	4. Sufficiently Advanced Magic

Twilight sat at her chair facing Chrysalis from the other side of the desk. The door had been locked and a creepy yellow changeling walked around behind her. He had one of those weird mustaches the changelings had, but his was longer, thinner and his eyes were too small with a smile that was too big. He was simply creepy, and Twilight hoped to whatever gods might be listening she wasn't left alone with him.

But then again, she didn't want to be left alone with the queen either, so she supposed she was just done for. At least she had managed to regain her mental composure. Mostly.

The room was dark but had enough light from the crystals on the walls that Twilight could see who she was with and it also had the tray with those revulsive things Chrysalis had been eating when she arrived. They were gone now and whatever cheese had remained in the tray was dry and even less appetizing than before.

The changelings and the pony have been there for some time and that was an interrogation technique Twilight was aware of. They wanted to wear her down with repeated questions, incorrect assumptions and perhaps catch her in a lie as soon she stated that their original intention was seeing their historical records of the Age of the Two Royal Sisters.

It came to a point Twilight felt like she had spent the whole night in this game, and she was tired and frustrated. Most of all, she felt angry at the changeling that wouldn't stop pacing around.

"So, you say that Princess Cadance sent you to look for the Queen?" He now moved around the desk, behind the queen. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to catch her in a lie, but Twilight was fine with it. She told them no lies. She completely and repentantly told them the whole truth. Including that she knew that she shouldn't have entered that place. She didn't apologize, though. It wasn't the time for that. Now was the time for a dry and brutally honest conversation. Still, she kept to herself her reservations about the changeling castes or the queen's position.

Of course, there was one thing freaking her out of her mind. The Changeling Queen herself. She simply remained there staring at Twilight, listening to her talk to the creepy changeling. As if she was judging Twilight. Though, she probably was judging Twilight. She had a creepy and weird aura about her, or maybe it was the images that kept forcing themselves into Twilight's mind's eye. She could even see the places in the joints of her black carapace where those… Tube-things stuck to her and her belly was a bit soft.

Twilight felt like screaming and her skin crawled while she tried to force these things out of her head and remain calm and collected.

"No." She replied as calmly as she could, but she was getting tired and his pacing was making her even more nervous. "Princess Cadance told me about the document and showed it to me. It prompted both of us to look for access to the archive so that we could verify the information in it."

"Are you seriously telling us that you came from Ponville just to look at climate records, pony? For pointless historical records of the griffons, of all creatures? That is the sort of thing you send your subjects to do!" The creepy changeling almost yelled at her. "I think you may have fabricated this letter simply to be given entrance to the hive for an innocent reason and then snoop around! Like in the Queen's Spawning Pool, for example!"

"I did not! I swear!" His raised voice scared Twilight. He had been creepy but eerily calm the whole time. "I just wanted to see the climate records to confirm that the letter is legitimate! I wanted to make sure the whole thing was at least grounded in reality!"

"Twilight Sparkle…" The queen finally said in her creepy voice. It startled the pony even more than the other changeling's yelling and made her tremble a little, fixating the pony's attention on her. "Would Princess Celestia try to sabotage the reproduction process of the Swarm?"

Something about the queen seemed off.

"I am certain I have never seen Princess Celestia resorting to sabotage in any situation before." Of course, the changelings had to have set-up the room with all sorts of lie-detection spells. She couldn't feel them because of the stupid ring in her horn but Twilight wouldn't risk saying something she couldn't be sure of. She might trigger a few of the many spells she knew they might be using. Somehow knowing that made her even more nervous. "Why would the princess do that, though?"

"We ask the questions here, pony." The creepy changeling said back to his calm demeanor, and walking one side to the other, but Twilight noticed something odd. Chrysalis seemed spent, tired. She thought back to what she saw in the Spawning Pool and no wonder she must feel tired. The pony couldn't help thinking of Cadance when Flurry Heart was born. Her chest stung in a hurtful pang. She had intruded into a mother's… Privacy? Sanctity? Worse than anxiety, Twilight realized what loomed over her head was shame, like a black cloak of darkness smearing her thoughts.

For an instant she thought that she may have ruined everything Princess Celestia had achieved with the Changeling Queen.

"Why didn't you talk to King Thorax, princess?" The creepy changeling asked moving back to the other side, behind Twilight.

"Because he ran past us!" She looked at him from the side of her eyes. "We heard the doctor-changeling yelling at him and he ran outside and past us. Then he was gone. The soldier, Xipho, said we could go inside and talk to the doctor changeling." As she spoke, she paid attention to the changeling queen… Was she breathing too fast? Twilight knew of her underhoofed ways and when she asked her question it seemed like something too direct for what Twilight would expect. Was she unwell?

Chrysalis' head swayed from one side to the other, subtly waving her mane around. Her eyes were half-closed, and Twilight feared she would faint. Even worse, this might be her fault.

It was her fault. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt that cold stone in her stomach again. Her ears fell flat and her throat was dry… Twilight would never want to hurt somepony. Especially the Changeling Queen, after all the doctor told her of how changelings work and after she and Celestia had signed the Heartmend Treaty. Maybe she was still a little worked up from her walk in the corridor, but her eyes even watered a bit.

"Your majesty… You don't look well. I… I'm sorry. I didn't want to disturb you… I was curious and did something I shouldn't have. I came here just to have a look at historical records for the griffons and the temperature changes… Forgive me? Please? Pretty please?" She said with her hooves together, pleadingly. She almost considered surrendering her thoughts about the queen's position.

"Very well, then. I believe you." Chrysalis immediately looked perfectly fine. "I thought I was going to stop having headaches when seeing you and your friends after that treaty. I don't like any of this, but at least I may not have to start a war all over again because of your stupidity."

Twilight needed a couple of seconds to understand what had just happened as she stared at nothing and confused. Somewhat used. But she supposed it was fair enough. Not only that, but despite what she said, Twilight had gotten the feeling that the queen wasn't entirely honest with her. She said that she believed her, but Twilight wasn't convinced that she did, so she kept her guard up.

"Myrmyrex, get Thorax and release her friends, then escort them into the vaults. I'll be in my office if you need something." The queen said as she got up and walked around the desk. Twilight followed her with her eyes, and she looked as strong as she'd ever been. In fact, she looked ready to win a fight with a bull.

"Are you sure, my queen? The vaults?" The changeling looked at her as she walked past him.

"Don't question me, Myrmyrex. Do as I say." She replied uninterested in anything he could have to say now that she had given him an order. And then she was gone.

But something about the way they spoke tipped Twilight off that they were using codes, or something like that. Or maybe she was just tired and seeing things where there were none. She'd rather be careful, just in case.

"Well, then…" The creepy changeling said as Twilight left her chair. "Thank you for your cooperation, Princess. As the Queen wishes, I'll take you to the archives. Though I suppose we should release your friends first?"

"That would be preferable. Thank you." She nodded and he gestured towards the door and then followed her out.

Twilight didn't resent the queen for playing with her feelings any more than she resented Chrysalis for leaving her with this creep that insisted on walking behind her. In a way she deserved it. The playing with her feelings, not the creepy changeling. Still, things are moving forward. For real, this time.

The corridor looked a lot less scary and dark this time. She had to wonder if it was because her mind felt lighter or if it was because the changelings changed the illumination. In a certain way, everything felt like a mind game ever since she awoke in her cell with Cadance. She didn't see it at the time, but why was the changeling doctor explaining anything at all to her? Was she truly sad that she had yelled at Twilight and the others? Or did Chrysalis put her to it?

Everything in this place seemed like a half-truth!

Twilight's walk came to a halt. Why did Princess Celestia sign a treaty with the changelings that only the changelings benefited from? Maybe Cadance was right, after all. Back at the ship Twilight didn't know Chrysalis still had any sort of power. Sure, Twilight thought that the Swarm was annexed into Celestia's rule, but she still wasn't sure what they had gained from the whole thing. The changeling mentioned that Cadance's magic reinvigorated them. She mentioned that they still die a lot and will need a lot of love like what they're getting through the inclusion programs in the deal, including her own school. Was this pure generosity?

The purple alicorn frowned a bit. The common pony might think so, but Twilight knew Celestia. She was kind and generous… But she wasn't stupid, and she certainly wouldn't come out of anything losing, or let Equestria come out of it losing. Besides the typical 'you gain more by being generous than by being selfish' she was sure there was more to the deal than what was apparent. Something was going on behind the curtains, and it was worrying Twilight. Ever since she embarked in this whole adventure, she felt like she was poking at secrets.

"Something wrong, princess?" Myrmyrex asked next to her and she smiled as pleasantly as she could.

"No. Everything is fine. I was thinking." She said and resumed walking, followed by the changeling.

"Good. Thinking is very advisable, princess." He said in a neutral to friendly tone. it was the way he seemed to always communicate in, but this time, it felt especially creepy. Twilight must've been imagining things. Her whole conversation with the two of them must've left her edgy.

Without delay they've arrived at her friends' cell and, while they were released and celebrated. Another changeling brought Cadance, and, finally the two princesses had their hornrings removed and the whole group was reunited with Pharynx, Spike, Shining Armor and Starlight Glimmer on a corridor along the way. Finally, Thorax brought to Cadance the briefcase.

Twilight was now happy, as were the others, because this time things really seemed to be flowing nicely. One thing had drawn her attention, though. They were going down, and she could clearly remember Xipho saying that down was the way to Chrysalis' laboratory. After what she had experienced in her period within the hive, she wasn't sure she should be excited or worried about it. Perhaps it would be better if she ignored it altogether. She could try…

"I'm terribly sorry for everything, Twilight." Thorax said. "I was kinda worried about Chrissy. This whole thing is complicated."

"Aw, did you just call her Chrissy?" Cadance giggled. "How cute."

"It's okay, Thorax." Twilight chuckled. "It was all my fault."

"I'm glad not much damage was made." Fluttershy chirped walking behind them and Applejack chuckled too.

"Well, I'm just glad Twilight didn't restart a war on account of her curriosity." She said in her typical accent and caused the others to giggle, except Twilight who let out a sarcastic 'ha ha'.

They took some time going down the happy and colorful halls of the Changeling Rock ever swarming with the happy and energetic colorful changelings. A small pang of sorrow struck Twilight now that she knew they weren't necessarily healthy changelings, but a caste of changelings. Then, another question dawned in her mind: how did the queen control which caste each changeling would be born into? Was it like cutie marks? Except nopony can control their cutie mark. Maybe the queen knew some magic that sorted them into these castes as needed? The changeling doctor mentioned that the queen secreted some sort of substance that informed the changelings which caste they should be born into. How did that work? Like a potion? Was it under Chrysalis' control? It must've been since all the changelings were black before.

Well she mentioned too that 'the magic that makes ponies work doesn't do very well with the changelings. Maybe it's not magic but something else entirely. It must be some amazing power that the Queen has. Almost as if the Princess could give ponies their cutie marks.

Actually, it was a little scary.

Twilight was jerked out of her thoughts when the group reached a dead end. A section of the corridor had collapsed and there was no way they could proceed through the black rubble. It even had sharp edges from the crystalline rock that made the changeling home. It occurred to Twilight that everything in this place was more dangerous than it seemed.

"Hum…" Thorax said, nervously looking to one side and another.

"How unfortunate." Myrmyrex said and Twilight was ready to hear him lament that they unfortunately couldn't reach the archives and thus, see the records they had asked. Chrysalis was feigning good-will and now things made perfect sense in Twilight's head.

"What now?" Rainbow Dash asked with her wings raised and frustrated expression.

"It seems we must take another route." The creepy changeling surprised Twilight. "There is another way. Through the Queen's laboratory."

"Uh…" Thorax looked at Myrmyrex. "That's a bad idea. Chrysalis is gonna flip if she hears of this."

Twilight's heart surged. And next to her Cadance giggled awkwardly, poking her with a hoof. "We promise we won't touch anything this time."

Myrmyrex looked at Cadance and then at Thorax. "Well, the ponies should behave, and the queen did order me to take them to the archives."

The walk to what Myrmyrex said was Chrysalis' laboratory was a short one, devoid of anything special. It was in an inconspicuous corridor that wasn't very used, as it lacked all the festive decorations the changelings had been spreading all over the Rock. Likely, the military changelings would keep them away.

She still hadn't gotten used to the idea, but it wasn't for her to judge. She couldn't deny that the changelings were happier than they were before. She had to remind herself that Chrysalis wasn't necessarily evil, and that Thorax would likely keep her in check. The things she had done were because she felt it was how her changelings would have a better chance to survive. She couldn't forget either that Chrysalis had sought a peaceful end to their cold war.

Or on the other hoof, that she might very well have murdered her own family.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Rarity spoke to her next to her left side. "Darling. You are very quiet. Are you still blaming yourself for what happened?"

"It was my fault, Rarity." Her ears fell a little. "It's just that…"

"Don't punish yourself too much." Rarity smiled sympathetically. "You have a tendency of doing that and nothing too bad happened. The doctor talked to us."

"I'm sorry, Rarity. I think I'm keeping a lot of things in my head… I'll tell you guys after we're done here." She motioned to the changeling in front of the group with her head. "I don't want to talk too much here."

Rarity emitted a small and low hum, feeling her own investigative vein stroked. She remained stoic though, leaving Twilight to her own thoughts. She hadn't seen anything particularly strange. But, then again Twilight had been doing a lot more snooping around than she had.

Eventually, they arrived at the entrance to the highly anticipated Queen's Laboratory. It was a simple door. Not even a guard standing around and that picked Twilight's common sense. It would dictate that Chrysalis would put at least one guard by the entrance.

That notwithstanding, Myrmyrex opened the door and Twilight was taken by a foreboding sense of something being out of place. It was simply too much of a coincidence that the direct path to the archives happened to be blocked and, because of that they had to go through the laboratory. Was it just a coincidence that Xipho had mentioned the laboratory while escorting them earlier? She wasn't sure of anything anymore.

Still, she followed the changelings with the group and, passing the door, they saw themselves in a sort of anteroom with four different open doors, but most importantly it had guards. That somewhat put Twilight's mind at ease. At least things didn't look so weird anymore. Additionally, those weren't the 'Xipho-style' guards, but they were the far scarier 'tall-double-sword' kind of guards. Not only that, but they behaved in a way Twilight would expect guards to act: they looked at the newcomers with less than friendly faces, and then they stared at Myrmyrex and Thorax quite angrily.

"They can't enter. This belongs to the Queen and the Queen alone." One of the three said, which made Twilight think it was the commander or something. "What is going on?"

It sounded female. Twilight was mildly surprised, and their guide stopped in front of them, drawing their attention to him. "I'm terribly sorry to disturb your work ma'am, but the direct way to the Archives has been blocked."

Thorax just let Myrmyrex talk.

"Blocked?" The 'commander' didn't seem particularly convinced or happy.

"Yes. Blocked. A cave-in." Myrmyrex explained with a hoof gesture, as though he was talking to a child.

For an instant, Twilight thought that they would simply turn them away, but the female in charge turned to one of her subordinates. "Bollocks. Check it."

"Ma'am!" One of them said before he secured his sword to his side, point-first, and briskly trotted off the door they had just came in.

Then silence took in. Twilight didn't feel like small talk and apparently neither did all the ponies and changelings around her. She examined the tall changelings curiously, however. They seemed professional even if their weapons looked strange to Twilight. In her mind, spears would be better suited weapons for the kind of environment they had to protect. She wished she could or felt like asking Shining Armor. He would know.

But Shinning Armor looked tense next to Cadance and Flurry Heart. And if he was nervous, then Twilight realized that she was becoming extra nervous again. But that didn't keep Pinkie from walking up to 'the commander'.

"Hi!" She said and was promptly ignored by the tall female changeling. Then she insisted. "Hiya! Hello! Greetings! Oi! Hola! Hej! Salut!"

The changeling closed her eyes and sighed in defeat. "Hi…"

"Do you like cupcakes?" Pinkie asked excitedly.

"No. I do not like cupcakes, ma'am." The changeling seemed intent at not looking at the pony.

"What about…" Pinkie started, but the changeling quickly cut her off.

"I do not enjoy any kind of sweet confections whatsoever. Ma'am." The commander seemed to be trying very hard not to be explicitly offensive, and that earned her a couple of points with Twilight.

But Pinkie didn't relent. "Oh! What about sour ones? Or bittersweet ones? How about…"

"Ma'am, please do not disturb the queen's guard." She said in an almost robotic voice that made Twilight picture the chirper changelings relentlessly trying to be friendly all the time.

"Oh, okay." Pinkie deflated as she returned to their midst, to be comforted by Fluttershy.

Fortunately, it didn't take long before the changeling returned. "The way is blocked, ma'am."

The commander became angry. "How did a bloody cave-in just happen? I heard nothing of it!"

"I have no idea, ma'am'. All I know is that the corridor has collapsed." While the two discussed Myrmyrex stared at the commander, expecting her to acknowledge his presence, which she seemed intent on ignoring.

Finally, Thorax cleared his throat not looking very friendly in that moment. "I believe I should have the authority to tell you to stop harassing these ponies and let us go to the archives, commander."

"Fine! In you go, ponies. Don't touch anything and go straight through." She said exasperated. "If the Queen kills me, I'll find you and haunt you."

Satisfied, Thorax nodded and Myrmyrex turned to Twilight and friends. "After me, please."

The ponies obeyed and quickly followed while Rainbow Dash talked to Pinkie in a hushed voice. "Gee. Talk about hostile work environment…"

Looking irritated, Pinkie agreed silently and mater of factly while Applejack did Twilight the favor of shushing them. Shining took the lead of the group, leaving Cadance and Flurry Heart with Twilight near the middle of the group and Rarity brought up the rear cautiously looking at everything. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash remained slightly in front of Twilight and the others and going after Myrmyrex and Thorax through the left most door.

They were in a strange place. The walls retained the glass-like smoothness and clinically clean appearance that Twilight saw before she entered the Spawning Pool, but it was larger, and instead of an angry changeling doctor and magical images, this room had four large green resin-like structures which reminded Twilight of cocoons with a transparent side so that one could see what was inside.

They were empty and left resting on their side, on the ground. They also seemed like they had been opened from the outside at some time and, at present time they seemed to be slowly disintegrating with a strong smell, like chlorine.

Not only that, but a few shelves had some strange instruments. They seemed magical in nature, made of noble metals like tin, gold and with diamonds and emeralds. Twilight and Cadance knew those were the sort of gems and metals that would work well with magic. They had no idea what they did, though: whatever magic animated them before was gone. Likely because they were unpowered. They both recognized the arcane technology as pony in origin, so they either stole it or Chrysalis got them from Celestia.

The pods were another thing of interest. They each looked large enough to contain a big male pony, but the princesses had no clue as to what they were used for and thought it best not to ask. Their attention wasn't the only one drawn to the things, though. The other ponies looked at them too, and Twilight internally thanked them for not asking questions. But Rarity looked particularly interested in them.

Not stopping Myrmyrex took them to the next room, which had two doors. One on the side and another on the far end. Additionally, the room had what looked like a stone table that rose from the floor next to a pulpit and a small wood table with a tray. On a passing glance Twilight saw nothing special about the room and simply followed Myrmyrex until he stopped at the door in the far end of the room. It had what Twilight quickly identified as a magical force field and it completely closed the door.

"Well, it's locked…" Myrmyrex said in a fake disappointed tone.

"Don't worry, I can open it." Thorax said, more to the other changeling than to the ponies and immediately went to work on it.

Twilight deliberately paid no attention to what he was doing, not willing to be misinterpreted, while ponies made themselves more comfortable looking at each other and spreading around a bit rather than remaining in the tight pack they were. Shining Armor looked at Cadance and at their baby and Rainbow Dash talked silently to the others. Twilight didn't hear what she said as her attention had directed itself at the stone table and pulpit.

The pulpit held nothing as did the stone table, but the tray in the other table held metal surgical instruments. They were clean, Twilight believed. This must be a dissection room.

Cadance approached her and spoke in a low voice confirming Twilight's thoughts. "This looks like a dissection room."

Twilight simply kept a critical eye over the place. "The poor things. I hope she at least dealt humanely with them."

Chrysalis could very well be dissecting creatures here and studying their anatomy. Maybe it was important to the changelings. They both had no idea, but if ponies would do the same, she couldn't think of any reason the changelings wouldn't.

"Twilight!" Rarity called her in the most hushed voice and gestured with a hoof for her to come near the other door, where Rarity was.

She didn't think much of it and went to her friend while Cadance returned to Shining Armor, and as soon as she came close, she could smell decomposition despite immediately feeling and identifying a dampening spell in the area. Rarity had a white embroidered, handkerchief to her muzzle as she pointed inside with a nod.

At first Twilight didn't understand what she saw, then she realized that there were the bodies of three creatures inside as though they've been carefully deposited there. They were covered in white cloths that were stained in caked blood and other bodily fluids which also pooled around them.

That wasn't a good practice… If Chrysalis was dissecting creatures, she ought to be preserving their carcasses and anatomical pieces in ether or glycerin instead of dumping what looked like whole bodies in another room. They looked big, too. Odd.

Even more odd that the room was illuminated. Maybe it was some quirk of their goo-filled crystals that their light couldn't be extinguished, but it still felt strange to Twilight that the poor things were unceremoniously dumped in the next room, yet still covered in sheets and while clearly illuminated, right next to the room where they would need to stop and open the force-field.

It felt contrived, to say the least. Rarity looked at Twilight as she looked at the blood-stained sheets. Chrysalis was taunting her to look at them. But for what purpose? Twilight was confused. Was this some sort of test? Did Chrysalis really suspect her of being sent to disrupt the Spawning Pool and was offering something that Twilight might not resist investigating if she was working under Celestia's orders? She did ask if Twilight had been sent as a saboteur, after all.

It would be the easiest thing in the world for her to reach with her magic and lift one of those sheets. Would she find a deer? Or some other animal? Perhaps dead changelings? Dead ponies. Some sort of golems? Prototypes for these larger changelings? Anything seemed possible. Still, she consciously decided not to disturb whatever those were.

"What do you figure they are?" Rarity whispered to her, nonetheless.

"I don't know what is going on here, Rarity." She replied equally in a whisper. "But don't disturb them. Chrysalis is baiting us for some reason. The sooner we get out of here, the better. This whole thing took an unnecessary detour because of me and I don't want to make things worse. Or stumble into something I'd rather not know."

It sounded ironic, but Twilight felt like she didn't want to endanger the treaty. Even if Chrysalis might be doing something wrong. That was not the time for that.

Rarity simply agreed silently with a nod and kept a low voice. "Did you notice those pods in the other room? They were the same ones the changelings used to keep us that time Starlight and the others saved us."

Twilight hummed. That was where she had seen them. But still preferred not to make a scene, and both distanced themselves from the door, returning to the midst of the group. It didn't take long for Thorax to finish magically fiddling with the obstacle and, as he finished they followed him into a corridor with another door, this time a simple wooden door which opened to a large room with nooks on the walls where rolled scrolls were stored, as well as large bookcases toward the deeper parts of the room. A large and long hall filled with books and scrolls.

"This it?" Rainbow asked looking up the tall walls filled with scrolls.

"Yes." Thorax said looking around. "Where is the librarian?"

A shadow moved between the ponies and the girls let out a collective shriek while a dark green and black changeling walked from their midst. "What do you need? I can find anything in the Archives!"

Not a particularly big changeling, she was somewhat petit and had big eyes behind giant round glasses which made her purple eyes seem even bigger as she stared intently at the king who raised an insecure hoof. "Uh… Twilight?"

The princess cleared her throat. "Do you happen to have information about the Holy Griffon Empire, or Emperor Gregor?"

"Who?" The changeling frowned weirdly at her.

Twilight sighed. "Nevermind… What about climate records for the Age of The Two Royal Sisters."

"Oh! Those we have that at the hoof!" The small changeling chimed happily and surprised the ponies by running up the shelves with the scrolls like she was an actual bug.

After some more careful looking around, she grabbed one of the scrolls and brought it down, holding it with one of her legs and then the changeling carefully deposited it over a table. Twilight took a second to fully comprehend what she was looking at: it was not the actual scroll, but it's casing. It was a thin and black metallic casing, adorned with the symbol of the Swarm, Chrysalis' jagged horn and a pair of changeling wings spread over the length of the cylinder, and on its ends black metal rods that stuck out. In its length it was bigger than a pony and, in its girth, it was as large as her leg.

Twilight could identify many spells at work, including the typical ones that old artifacts usually had to ensure they would last but it did draw her curiosity that this one carried ancient magic. That wasn't particularly interesting because most ancient artifacts that were made to last would be protected by magic as old as they were. What drew Twilight's attention was that she recognized that magic as Chrysalis' magic. If that thing was that old… Was she alive at the time? Maybe she just renovated its magic as time passed and she inherited it from her mother?

"Whoooa… That thing is huuuge." Pinkie said next to her while Twilight was still collecting her wits.

"So… The technology of breaking up scrolls into different pieces hasn't arrived to the changelings yet?" Rainbow said looking down at the thing.

Twilight simply grunted at her comment, and Cadance explained patiently. "It's not big because they can't cut it, Rainbow. It's like this because it's special. They made something grandiose because it was important."

Flurry Heart, on her back, was already getting bored and the big thing didn't interest in the least.

"That is quite right!" The changeling librarian nodded enthusiastically. "Queen Chrysalis personally created this one and the following ones. My antecessor said that she heard from her antecessor and theirs that she would make one for each age and only certain changelings would know the spell to unlock them. But as time went on, the wards waned and now, even though they are preserved, they can be read as any normal scroll."

Twilight beheld the thing with a sense of reverence. So, she did create it. That thing could be as old as what passes for present Equestria. Then she looked at the librarian again, letting the other obvious question slip from her mind. "May we see it?"

Cadance almost giggled at Twilight's respect for the thing. Even if she did have some reverence too for the meaning of that scroll. So, she let Twilight with her new toy.

And Flurry wished she had her toys.

"Of course!" The changeling librarian chimed. "Just be careful! Though I don't think I'd have to tell you that."

Twilight held the big scroll in her magic and its own magic flooded her senses. Its protective spell was ancient and powerful. Much more than needed to protect it from the ravages of time. It probably was a remnant of whatever magic was used to keep it sealed from the wrong eyes, but whatever effect it was supposed to have was gone. Still, it filled Twilight with a strange sense of how old the events in that thing were. And the letter Cadance had found put its meaning in a very interesting context.

She finally opened the scroll pulling lightly at its protective rod at the edge of the parchment. It rolled inside and the strip of parchment came out smoothly. Like the letter it didn't seem like the vegetal parchment ponies typically used but it also didn't seem like the typical animal skin the letter seemed to be made from. Maybe it was for the best that Twilight didn't know what that thing was made of.

More importantly the scroll did have the information she wanted. It was a well-organized table ordered by the date as defined by the Changeling calendar, and it contained information about the time of sunrise and sunset, the mean temperature of the day, along with highest and lowest.

It was exactly what Twilight needed, and she had a satisfied grin staring down at the thing next to her sister-in-law.

"Well, I'll leave you to it, then. I'm sure my queen needs me." The creepy changeling, Myrmyrex said and left without waiting for anything.

It was a monumental effort though one Twilight and Cadance were well capable of. Translation required a conversion of the old changeling dating system to the modern equestrian one. Not surprisingly the changelings had a different calendar and adopted a new one when Chrysalis took charge of the swarm which lent more credence to the legend of Mother Farfalla, but also meant Chrysalis could indeed be as old as Equestria itself.

Twilight wasn't sure how to feel about that and her brain was more preoccupied with more immediate things, such as correctly converting dates, translating months and converting temperature measurements to the current system, which curiously was already used by the gryphons of Gregor's time. It probably was because Equestria already used their present system at the time and it was the changelings that had a different one. Comprehensible since it was the changelings that had a very specific need and would prefer to keep their information secure if it was found by the wrong creatures at the time.

Still it would be much harder to find the specific records they needed if the changelings hadn't been as thorough as they were. Twilight immediately found them as soon as her eyes met them. It was subtle in the beginning, but there was a pattern like the one described in the letter.

"Oh my gosh!" She said with huge eyes. Suddenly all her tiredness was gone. "This is it!"

Immediately all the bored ponies and changelings in the room went to her as she pointed at it with her reading stick. "It's right here! It started precisely one hundred years before our recorded arrival of Princesses Celestia and Luna! The precise times for sunrise and set began varying wildly, sometimes with hours of difference from the typical times and the mean temperature got as high as one hundred and ten in areas it should be around sixty. There are even side notes of discrepant stellar positions, vanishing stars and the angular size of the sun literally increasing!"

"This is insane!" Cadance gawked at the same records while the others huddled around to see. "Ponies must have been dying of exposure."

"This sounds scary…" Pinkie said next to Twilight, frowning down at the parchment. Not that she could decipher what it said, but she believed Twlight.

"Twilight…" Fluttershy's voice made her look up. "What could cause this sort of thing?"

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can deal with the sun and the stars trivially, but before them… Hum… It's possible that the unicorns were becoming weaker and weaker as the effort drained their magic and soon, they began losing their ability. Or maybe it became harder as time passed." That was what she was taught after all and believed without a second thought for most of her life.

"This doesn't make a lick of sense." They all looked at Applejack's frowning stare and she stared back at them. At Twilight, precisely. "I had never thought about it, but… For how long had the unicorns been moving the sun and the moon? I mean… Suppose it drained their magic. Sure, but for how long does a unicorn live? Two hundred years? For how long the world has existed? All that time, they're all high and mighty, doing their thing and suddenly, in just one hundred years, things got wacked."

The ponies stared at each other for a few seconds. Applejack was right. It didn't make any sense. Ponies like Twilight and Cadance certainly thought of it before, but seeing these records was like staring straight at a liar that can't keep up.

"With the right magic one could live for as long as they held their enchantments." Twilight frowned, a little unsure of her next words. "Princess Celestia has been alive for thousands of years..."

Twilight should know if Princess Celestia used such spells. To be sure, she did light up like a Hearthwarming tree when Twilight peeked at the magic around the Princess and she had so many layers of protective spells on her all the time that simply trying to figure them out would give Twilight a headache. But she should have mentioned such things, especially since her mentor had taught her a lot of such spells and that sort of spell were not exactly banned, but frowned upon.

"Could a pony live forever? With these spells?" Rarity looked at the two princesses with curiosity.

"No…" Cadance answered a little distracted while Twilight was busy thinking. "There comes a point when the soul would lose all its ability to retain magic."

"Because they would be casting spells that are too strong?" Pinkie asked and Cadance shook her head.

"No, that's not it. It's simply because the soul becomes…Tired. Some ponies are born with powerful souls that can store huge amounts of magic and they are replenished while they use it because they absorb it from the world. But as they get old they start replenishing their magic less efficiently. Just like older ponies may have trouble casting some spells that require too much power."

Cadance started making gestures with her hooves explaining what she was saying. "It flows. From ponies and to them. To and from Equestria, reaching a sort of balance. So ponies aren't supposed to live for too long because they'd be, kind of clogging the system."

"How does that explain ponies like Princess Celestia and Luna? And Chrysalis, for that matter?" Rarity asked. "I figure she's pretty old."

Twilight's jaw dropped. Did Princess Celestia's magic directly feed off the sun or something like that? Maybe ruling Equestria was her way of bleeding off that magic to it. It was what ponies did… Following their destinies, living their lives, putting their talents to their personal betterment and that of their communities. Maybe the act of raising the sun every day had a much deeper meaning than simply giving its light and making the day? Was she their connection to the sun, which was their source of energy?

The others must've been thinking the same thing because Pinkie stared suspiciously at her. "Twilight? Have you been stealing friendship from us?"

"Uh… Not that I'm aware of!" She defended herself.

"I don't think that's how it works, Pinkie." Shining said. "I mean… Changelings feed of love because their magic is wacked. Cadance's magic is fine so she creates love…"

"Sooooo…" Rainbow looked like she was about to fry her brain. "Twilight creates friendship?"

"I suppose we all would, Rainbow." Applejack said with a weirded-out expression.

Twilight felt somewhat like she did staring at the magical images outside the Spawning Pool. She was poking at something she didn't fully understood, and its real meaning escaped her. Worse of all, all this talking wasn't helping. None of them knew one third of what she knew of magic. Then she frowned. How much of it did she know compared to Princess Celestia?

Everypony knew that ponies needed plants to eat and they needed the sun's energy by their simple biology, like ponies needed food. But everything in Equestria had a magical edge to it. If the unicorns were trying to control the sun but couldn't. No… Things still didn't fit. Applejack was right. This whole affair didn't seem like a natural system. For starters, the amount of energy involved in the Sun's output. How did that translate to magic? How many unicorns did they try to use? For how long did they last? What went wrong? Was their magic incompatible, or something?

Did it simply overwhelm them with its sheer magical output? How can Princess Celestia simply deal with it then? Twilight never tried anything similar, but she knew that her magic connected with the magic in things around her when she cast a spell over them. If that thing in the sky outputs so much magical power, it must feedback ridiculously powerful and complex magic. Enough to damage a pony's inherent magic, she wondered.

To be entirely honest the sun really should be working on its own. Period. It would fix everything and if this system had any logic to it that is what it would've been doing!

Maybe something happened and unicorns had to take control of the sun, but they failed and… What? Did Equestria's magic react? Maybe, magically things were collapsing, and it had to save itself from imploding. But that implied that it had some sort of awareness and agency. This didn't explain why it didn't react by simply fixing what was wrong or by giving the unicorns the right magic.

None of it made any sense!

"My point…" Applejack went on and Twilight heard her over her thoughts. Their conversation was a mess and Twilight was having trouble focusing. "Is that this thing had been working as intended for generations before it began going haywire. Then, when things, precisely, became unbearable, the Princesses appeared and got things under control."

Yeah… Makes sense, Twilight thought.

"We may be trying to see too deep a meaning where there is none." Rarity offered with a hoof. "Maybe it was Discord that damaged the unicorn's ability to control the sun and moon. Then… Uh…"

She simply shrugged.

"Magic?" Rainbow said. "It reacted with the princesses. They fixed the whole thing. Like us. We met and got the Elements just in time to stop Nightmare Moon."

"You got it wrong, Rarity." Starlight countered. "The Princesses came before Discord."

"Not according to Gregor's letter." Cadance said with a raised hoof and Starlight acquiesced with a hoof on her chin.

The changeling librarian spoke then. "We do have records of Discord's arrival. I'll fetch them for you."

Efficiently the changeling brought them a book which she promptly opened and started looking for something. Soon she found what she was looking for and turned the book to the princesses. Twilight was lost in thought, though. A deep pit of fear had begun to grow in the back of her mind, but Cadance stared at the book squinting a little and oblivious to Twilight's thoughts.

"Collated reports by our spies on Discord." The librarian added. "Says here that Discord made himself friends with the ponies, but as time went on, he began causing so much chaos that Equestria's society began to collapse and they had to leave. No mention of the princesses. It seems they only heard of them a couple of centuries later. It implies it was after we recovered from the damage Discord caused."

"The date corresponds with Gregor's letter." Cadance looked over their notes with a weird expression. "I guess… It's all a mess. About one hundred years before our records, but in time to be some sort of reaction to the damage. I think."

"What the hay!" Shinning frowned. "If the ponies beat Discord, why didn't whatever they did fix the problem with the sun?"

"So… I think we may have been right that magic, or whatever sent the princesses to fix the problem." Rainbow said hesitantly and the others followed, adding support or their own versions of what must have happened.

For a few instants Twilight stood silent at the table, staring down at it. A sense of dread crept up her spine like a cold spider delighting itself in torturing her. This whole story wouldn't fit even if they could blame Discord for messing with the whole system. It appeared the changelings misinterpreted the sun acting up as Discord's doing. The actual problem seemed to be an ancient one. Older than Equestria because unicorns had, supposedly been controlling the sun since an unknow date. Might as well have been forever. Even if Discord could be blamed for everything that happened, it still wouldn't explain other things like Gregor and his non-existing empire Equestria has never heard of. The discrepancies in the records with things were, literally clear as the day. The meaning of that fact greatly vexed her.

Through all the wonder at the theories of how Celestia's magic worked, at the center of it all it seemed like somepony had tried to hide something important about how Equestria worked in a very intimate level. Something happened that changed the way things worked and the unicorns couldn't keep up. Things happened in the past different from what their history told them and there was one pony that lived through it all. One single pony in the perfect position to withhold and adulterate information from that time. This implied all sorts of things Twilight would rather not think about.

This train of thought terrified Twilight Sparkle more than that of an angry sun going berserk. She didn't want to think of it before, but it was staring her in the face right now, like a plateful of quesadillas. One single pony in the position to change everything, from whatever deep magic coursed through Equestria to whatever happened in that period that vanished, and that happened to sit atop the world, uncontested. Capable of doing whatever she wanted, including shady deals with changelings and messing with their line of succession.

Twilight didn't even know the name for that, but she was sure it was wrong.

It had occurred to her that she could spend days in this library looking for records of Equestria as told by the changelings that had infiltrated her and would give their home a real account of what they saw. She imagined what she would see, but she also imagined she didn't have much time before 'somepony' realized she was poking at things she wasn't meant to. She needed answers and needed them fast so that she could figure out what to do.

Her voice rang among the other discussing voices as she raised her eyes from the table and spoke with a certain authority the others weren't used to hear in her voice. "Thorax. I need to speak to Chrysalis."

"Hum…" She scared him a little and he hesitated. He'd never seem her so serious and with such a hard stare. "I think she's not very friendly right now, Twilight."

"I demand it." She said calmly. "Under my authority as a Princess of Equestria… I suspect another Princess of corruption."

In another situation Twilight might've found comical the collective gasp around her.


	5. Of Tales and Myths

"Twilight! Twilight! Stop! This is nuts!" Shining ran in front of her looking like he was going to have a seizure any second with a frazzled mane and manic eyes. "You can't just accuse Princess Celestia like that!"

The walk to Chrysalis' quarters was uncomfortable and that was probably an understatement. Thorax's presence ensured that it would be a quick one though, and for that Twilight was very thankful. She really didn't think herself capable of explaining to anypony what exactly was going through her mind. She didn't know for sure if even she believed it entirely. Not that it kept the others from bothering her.

"I know, Shinning! That is why I need to talk to Chrysalis!"

"But why Twilight?!" Rarity whined at her side, frantically trying to make her stop. Her frazzled mane was better, but Shining's gave her a run for her money. "Why Chrysalis?! She's not very friendly or trustworthy!"

"She's likely old enough, Rarity." Twilight frown was deepening by the second. "And who else can I talk to? Discord? Princess Celestia?!"

"YES!" Rarity shrieked, but then got her nerves under control again. "I mean, not Discord… But definitively Princess Celestia!"

"No, Rarity." Cadance walked along on Twilight's other side. "She's just going to dismiss the whole thing… And if she knows of it, she'll try to make the whole thing disappear before we can investigate. Or even make us stop, permanently. Especially if she is to blame!"

"What about Princess Luna, Twilight?" Fluttershy skipped along, trying to keep up, following them up one of the Changeling Rock's spires.

The princess shook her head, looking down. "She won't do either, Fluttershy. She's too close to Princess Celestia and she also benefitted from whatever happened."

"Will you listen to yourselves?!" Spike pulled at Twilight's tail but all he got was it yanked from his hands and an angry stare from the princess. He was angry too though and, stopped opening his arms. "Princess Celestia! We're talking about Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!"

"I know!" Twilight snapped at him, turning around. "Do you think you're angry? She's my second mother! But you know what else? She's also made me what I am today! I must know the truth! It's my job as a Princess of Equestria! We protect it! From the Princess if we have to!"

Cadance looked angry too as she stopped and stared at the others with similar, if not hotter anger. "Princess Celestia taught me everything! She's made us sit for six hours classes on statecraft! Twilight doesn't even need to manage public assets and she sat there with me because she knew that she would enjoy it! It was like three friends talking about the job, not a course on some of the most boring things known to ponykind! That is how much we like her! We're supposed to be family and she lied to us!"

Twilight faced the others too. "Princess Celestia commands a ridiculous amount of assets and she must answer to, literally, everything that is alive in Equestria! Not to mention she taught us that a ruler must be held to higher standards than their people and now we're seeing that her rule might not even be legitimate!"

Finally, Cadance pointed an accusatory hoof at the others. "You think you're angry! She's literally the closest thing I have for a mother! And she lied to me! She's done the exact opposite of all she's ever taught me!"

Starlight Glimmer angrily stomped her hoof among the others. "Will you two stop acting like this is personal?!"

"It is personal!" The two yelled together.

What stopped the whole discussion was the baby crying. Cadance had to take Flurry Heart in her wings, close to her chest and reassure her while they climbed the rest of the way in silence.

That was good. Twilight had to mentally prepare for her conversation with Chrysalis. It occurred to her that Chrysalis might have a vested interest in protecting Equestria's version of the facts. She would have to be as careful as possible not to raise any flags about what she had discovered and speculated. It would probably be best to get her to start talking and let her expose as much as possible by herself.

Twilight only hoped she could keep up to the changeling queen. And none of the others spoke too much or too soon. Yes, she would have to take the lead.

Another thing that worried her was the presence of the black changelings. The whole thing could be even worse than she thought if Chrysalis not only was doing things behind Princess Celestia's back, but if the princess was doing things behind everypony's back. It was like a double problem.

Calming her thoughts Twilight reminded herself that the colorful changelings still overwhelmed the black ones. If Chrysalis had plans for some sort of schism, she'd have trouble with it. Of course, she was also getting new changelings exactly now.

Twilight really hoped that through all that she's been finding out Princess Celestia really knew what she was doing. She remembered she had suffered the same stress when the princess ordered Discord released, and that turned out to be for the best. Maybe the others are right and Princess Celestia had very good reasons to do whatever is it that she did or even better, Twilight had got something wrong and was overreacting.

She chuckled darkly to herself. She, overreacting… Like that ever happened.

Was she in the wrong here? Even if the princess had hidden something in their past, she may have done it with a good and noble goal in mind. It was Princess Celestia. The very symbol of all a pony could look up to.

Of course, Twilight knew that Celestia had her shortcomings, but the important thing was that she was the big guardian of Harmony. The one that unified all and turned their world into what ponies more knowable in statecraft than Twilight called a utopia. Yes, it was an exaggeration… But…

Maybe whatever she hid away was necessary for the greater good of Equestria? That made sense, right? Well, Twilight couldn't see how hiding a past emperor and his empire would help Equestria when everypony knew of King Sombra. Or this whole mess about the unicorns, the sun and herself. What if she stole the sun from the unicorns? Used it to reach for power.

They still lived in a near utopia.

Was it still a utopia if it was founded on a lie? On illegitimate rule?

She wished she could simply command her conflicting thoughts out of her head for a while.

When they arrived, they saw themselves in an atrium with large windows, balconies, sofas, chairs, a table. It looked like the changeling version of a luxurious living area. All sorts of spells kept the area comfortable despite the winds outside and provided security to the area, including powerful spells on the door itself.

It was a black, wooden double door adorned in green metallic embroidery and guarded by two of the tall double sword-wielding black changelings. They looked stoic but seemed to be ready to spring into action while two more converged towards them from behind the group and four more stood by the balconies.

They made Twilight nervous. Now more than before and Shining eyed one and another repeatedly, distrustingly too.

"Your majesty?" One of the two by the door talked to Thorax. "Do you wish to see the Queen?"

"Twilight needs to talk to her for a while." Thorax said calmly. "It's important. Please tell Chrysalis that I would personally consider it a favor if she talked to Twilight and her friends."

The guard nodded and calmly took stock of the group and then said nothing. Instead knocked twice on the door and went inside only opening the door enough to pass through and closing it immediately after.

Again, the group found itself passing the time and waiting for things to happen. This time the ponies grouped together tightly. Maybe the tall changelings made them feel threatened as well or maybe it was the things Twilight said earlier. Like Twilight they all seemed uncomfortable in that room and the stares from the guards didn't help.

Fortunately, Thorax stood isolated in the middle of the room uncomfortably staring into the floor and rubbing his forelegs together probably still thinking about the things they found in the Archives.

Cadance approached him with a small smile and this provided Twilight with an opportunity that she took casually approaching the two careful not to make any sudden movements. He looked at them and smiled back.

"Sorry we blew this on you… This was meant to be a special day." Cadance said legitimately apologetically.

"Ah… It's okay, Princess Cadance." He said in a shy smile. "You didn't know it was going to turn like it did. And this sounds very serious."

He made a small pause and Twilight waited, feeling he wanted to say something else. "Do you think… That you're right about what you said?"

"I don't know." She admitted. "That is why I want to talk to Chrysalis and quickly. I need to understand what those things mean. I need to figure out what to do next. And she lived through that time… I think. How old is she, Thorax?"

He shook his head lightly. "I don't know."

Twilight frowned for a second. In a way this was a good thing, but it rubbed her in the wrong way to think that Thorax didn't know how old Chrysalis was despite being… Married? Whatever he was to her. But then again Thorax was very nice and might not have asked out of politeness. Twilight would have to not be as polite.

"What about these tall changelings?" The older alicorn asked in a particularly low voice. Fortunately, Thorax took the hint and did the same.

"Chrysalis calls them 'Praetorians'." His eyes shifted between the two ponies and the one guard that remained by the door. "They were born in the last brood."

"Impossible!" Twilight kept her voice low. "They would be two years old!"

"Twilight, it's the creepiest thing I've ever seen in my life!" He barely kept from shrieking. "The others are still growing normally, but these guys… They looked adult in seven days. Our armorer gave them these swords and they simply started sparring like they spent a lifetime learning those things. They know combat spells I can't figure out! They look at Chrysalis like she's… Well, their mother. Normal changelings don't do that. Sure, we all know and understand what she is, but they will stare evilly at you for so much suggesting something bad about her! They stare at us while we sleep, and I could swear I saw one of them trying to cut a lock of her mane! They freak me out!"

Great! Twilight was having second thoughts about the legitimacy of Celestia's rule and now there's an evil queen rising an army of crazy super changelings… Possibly with her leave. Just great.

"How many?" Cadance asked, discreetly looking at the guard by the door.

"Seventy-two changelings in the last brood." Thorax said slightly sad for a second. "Eight were inviable… But there were fifty that turned out fine. Half military, half civilian. And the rest were these creepy tall guys! Though you couldn't say when they hatched. Only Chrysalis and her eggmaidens knew and they took them away from the others. They just appeared out of nowhere a week later."

Twilight and Cadance were a bit confused. Those were small numbers and they immediately remembered what the changeling doctor told them about their failing magic. Maybe Twilight was overreacting. The pink one decided she wanted to know more. "Are these black changelings supposed to be around? I was under the impression that all changelings had changed when Chrysalis was ousted."

"They changed back when she returned." He said curiously. "Chrysalis said some creepy thing like she does when she's making fun of you and that was it."

"Thorax, is it possible that they had disguised themselves to be with you?" Twilight asked.

He shook his head. "No… We're very empathic. We'd know if another changeling was lying. The fact is that not everyling was happy when she was forced to leave."

Then Twilight took a deep breath and watched curiously as Cadance talked to him again. "I… Thorax… Is… Everything… Alright? You know… With the changelings… Chrysalis?"

"Actually, yes. Chrysalis is a bit rough, but I'm sure she has the good of the Swarm in mind. All of the Swarm." He said worriedly even though he had a low voice. "What worries me is that you just said that Princess Celestia may be hiding things… Like… She's… Done something really bad!"

That at least put Twilight's mind more at ease. She would trust Thorax to keep Chrysalis in check.

Finally, the door opened, and the tall changeling guard returned. "The Queen will see you and your friends, Princesses."

"Thank you." Twilight smiled as she started walking towards the door the guard held open and her friends followed, along with Thorax.

Twilight didn't know what to expect but it certainly wasn't what she saw thought the door. A large open room with enough space to park Twilight's airship in it with evenly spaced black obsidian pillars and walls. It had large glassed windows, a high ceiling and the floor was entirely made of a very beautiful and shiny dark green marble. Each slab that combined to form the floor was framed in a gleaming green metal.

The giant room had different areas combined into a single large room and those included an office with a giant black wooden table complete with rolled up and piled scrolls, and assorted materials related to office work. The room also had a big and luxurious sitting area with large and comfortable sofas, a fluffy carpet and a giant painting of Chrysalis hanging from the wall and framed in gold. She smiled. Like she knew something. Secure in the knowledge that she was at the top. Like there was no one else above her and there would never be.

The room also had a giant bed secluded close to the back and protected by green, gold embroidered curtains. It was big enough to comfortably hold some twenty ponies and its sheets were a deep jet-black satin.

In the center of the room was a table covered in sweets and jars filled with juices. Next to it two of the 'Praetorians' kept watch over the visitors and the whole room was littered by works of art. From creepy sculptures of dissected creatures to bladed weapons, paintings and a few richly adorned cups and plates including painted porcelain but also gold and gemstones.

Next to the bed was a standing piano. Made from black wood and adorned with beautiful green metal embroidery that made one think of the former changeling aesthetic with its jagged forms and dangerous looking sharp edges.

Chrysalis sat next to it and her black hooves touched the keys with a lightness and precision that supplemented the magic she used to hit the keys.

Twilight was full of questions and some anger in her head but listening to the queen playing the piano she was completely at a loss for what to ask her.

She wore a stunningly beautiful royal cape of dark-green velvet. It looked so pure it should be put in a museum instead of worn. It added a surreal sheen to the queen's already shinny carapace and her strong frame didn't seem capable of such elegance. She looked a little too rigid in her posture with a rigid neck and back, but it didn't get in the way of her music.

The ponies simply stared and listened while she played her song. It wasn't particularly beautiful but as all music it spoke to their souls. Of peace, of a nice rhythm as life went on peacefully in a place where day in and day out nothing much changed. It was a fancy march that repeated its phrases. A dance of acute and happy notes that went up and down, eventually becoming deeper as the song descended into a more melodramatic tone that sustained its notes while keeping its tempo and phrases. More mature, like growing up and becoming more complex.

Finally, her song concluded with sustained notes which implied whatever it spoke about would endure, returning to the higher notes, still sustained until she left the keyboard.

The ponies simply stared surprised. Of all the things they expected this was closer to the least ones. It was Rarity that first started applauding by stomping her hooves on the marble, but the others soon followed. Not only because it was polite but even the least musically inclined ones could see the value of what they had heard.

"Wow! Queen Chrysalis!" Spike applauded enthusiastically. "I didn't think that you, of all the creatures I've met in my life would play the piano!"

"Spike!" Twilight gasped shocked at him. "What a rude thing to say!"

She looked apologetically at the queen who stood and approached carrying an open paper folder. Her green magical telekinesis floated it to the dragon and he held it curiously.

"It's a pale imitation." She walked towards the central table. "It was composed by a true master… She invented the piano and then wrote a song with it. But my own song doesn't work as well."

The dragon hummed and looked at the top of the sheet. It was titled '_Cuore_'. Then he closed the folder and the cover had a painting of a beautiful prairie under a sunny sky. Its title was written in white ink at the top: '_Vivissimo_'.

"I've never heard of it." Rarity looked at the folder the dragon held and then looked at the queen.

"She mostly plays different things now. Though it's still something to behold." Chrysalis reached for a white éclair with her magic. "Make yourselves comfortable since you're here to talk."

The gears in Twilight's head were spinning again but she didn't notice something Chrysalis said. Cadance did. It didn't make any sense. The inventor of the piano never played it. She was speaking in metaphors though Cadance didn't think she knew why they were there and shouldn't jump to conclusions. Chrysalis was talking about something different, incidentally.

"Well, just because somepony invented the piano and then wrote a song for it…" Rarity held the sheets in her magic. "It doesn't mean that another can't do something worthwhile with it."

"Quite right." Chrysalis agreed and her magic floated a cookie to Rarity. "Here."

In her defense Rarity did her utmost best not to show how annoyed she was beyond her ears turned back and unfriendly look, but she almost regretted the compliment. Meanwhile, the queen sat behind her large desk and stared at the ponies and dragon who congregated before her.

Before Twilight could say anything, Rainbow spoke as she looked around. "You know… You look like you're doing very well for yourself, with all this luxury."

"Changelings are made in this room, Rainbow Dash." The queen grinned, flashing her sharp teeth and staring at the pegasus over the desk. "This is hallowed ground."

"Sheesh…" The pegasus grimaced and threw her ears back.

"Thank you for receiving us, Queen Chrysalis." Cadance used her diplomatic tone.

"Thank Thorax." She said. "If it wasn't for him asking, I'd have you all thrown off the Rock."

Then Chrysalis made herself comfortable at her large chair. "I hope you didn't see anything too disturbing in your way through the laboratory, though."

'Bitch…' was what Twilight thought but she stared at the queen innocently enough. "We did our best not to intrude."

"And did you find what you were looking for?" The queen's grin was starting to unnerve Twilight. Why in Tartarus was it so hard to simply talk to her? "Since you're here I suppose that you found exactly what you were looking for."

The young alicorn almost panicked. Chrysalis knew! She might even have already warned Princess Celestia that her former student was poking at forbidden knowledge. Her eyes strayed to the stack of scrolls over the desk and her heart raced like it wanted to explode. A simple letter would've sufficed, and she already wasted so much time. Celestia could be on her way right now!

She needed to think of something, fast!

Her friends stared at her and Twilight drew a blank under the queen's gaze. Finally, Cadance came to her rescue taking a step forward. "Chrissy, did you see the letter?"

"No."

Twilight's ears perked up. Did she hear it right? "You… Haven't seen the letter?"

"No!" The queen said again. "I don't care about it. I was worried that Celestia had sent you to spy and to sabotage, you dummy. We thought that the letter was fabricated, precisely because we know that you ponies follow the story as told by the griffons! Not in a million years would I care about some griffon monarch with a generic name. Do you have any idea how many of them existed and the griffons never bothered to mention because they all thought of themselves like their gods walking the earth because they owned a small fiefdom?!"

What in Equestria was this cursed mare talking about then?! Did she really fear so much that Twilight would poke around in that creepy laboratory of hers? She almost regretted not looking under those damn sheets!

"Are you kidding me?" She cried angrily at the queen. "This Gregor was just some nobody that happened to talk to King Sombra? What about their conversation about the sun and the night sky? The temperature? The unicorns?"

"What are you talking about?" The queen repeated. "Like I said, I thought it was a ruse and didn't even pay attention to any of this talk."

While the ponies generally stared with profoundly annoyed expressions and ostensive irritation, Cadance talked to her. "Chrysalis, we discovered that Equestria's records are wrong when compared to yours. Temperatures and sunrise, etcetera. We think somepony may have changed our records."

With that Twilight growled and magically grabbed the briefcase with the letter and all their notes, slamming it open on Chrysalis' desk. "For pony's sake! Look at these!"

Nonchalantly, the queen grabbed the preserved letter in her hooves and quickly scanned it, before stopping and staring at Twilight next to Cadance with a small scowl.

"Put your hooves up." She told them and the both obeyed innocently before the queen grabbed a beating stick from her desk and promptly hit their legs while scowling fiercely and causing both to yelp painfully.

"It's pronounced 'Grigor', you simpletons! This is a 'ee' grapheme!" She yelled at them while the others did their best not to laugh. "Celestia ought to put the both of you kneeling on corn until you can read this thing right!"

The two princesses massaged their sore legs whining and staring angrily at the queen and Cadance replied thoroughly offended. "It's a dead language, you know?"

"Quiet. I'm reading. This whoreson actually was important." She snapped back at her, focusing on the letter

A few minutes passed as the queen scowled again but she looked curious. Twilight and Cadance waited as she seemed to check and re-check their notes more than she worried about the letter. She then stared thoughtfully at the two princesses and then back at the letter. Finally, she let it rest on the desk and stared at the wall with her jaw slightly hanging open.

The others could practically hear the spinning gears in her head.

Finally, her thoughtful scowl turned softer and she started to giggle, then to laugh, and within seconds she had surrendered to one of the most heartfelt laughter they had ever seen. It sounded weird in her voice but at least it wasn't the typical evil laughter.

"What is so funny?" Rainbow asked feeling like the queen was making fun of them.

"Millenia later, it had to be her own students to happen upon a random letter that happened to mention this mess. And of all Celestia's students, it had to be The Twilight Sparkle!"

Her audience didn't seem particularly amused, but she surrendered to laughter again and almost chocked trying to regain her breath. "Through the millennia I've seen Celestia spinning schemes and planning centuries ahead before her efforts bore fruit. I've witnessed from a distance while she forged her great empire of rosy-colored sugary friendships and I've watched as she either struck down her enemies or formed alliances with her faithful. Like a chessmaster, shifting her pieces all over until she had all under her sun. I have myself surrendered to her and felt like a child before that ageless gaze of hers… And one tinny letter escaped the grasp of the mighty Matriarch."

Twilight wasn't amused. Not one bit.

"Well, it is kinda funny." Pinkie chuckled.

"Then again…" Chrysalis stared at the two princesses. "Perhaps it was only right that you two would be the ones to find this tiny crack and explore it. Oh, thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Thank you, Cadance… Thank you so much for this moment."

"Will you stop making fun of us and start talking?" Cadance stared angrily at the queen. "This is serious!"

"Fine." She still sounded like she was having too much fun. "I see what happened. You found this letter and it told you some things that didn't seem right. Then you poked around and figured out that what didn't make much sense was the story you've believed your whole lives. Now, from the start… Make yourselves comfortable. It's story time."

They did. Chrysalis guards politely brought them pillows and chairs. And as they did Chrysalis started talking.

"You are wondering who was this Grigor fellow and why he didn't seem to exist. It's because the griffons hated him enough to erase him and all his… Let's call those 'achievements' from their history. And they had help from a certain pony with a lot of power in that time, that also had a lot of interest in that period vanishing from history. So, they helped each other even if said pony still wasn't as loved by the griffons."

"What did he do?" Twilight rolled her eyes at her avoiding saying Celestia's name but was shocked. In her world there just wasn't anything anyone could do to earn so much hatred from their own people.

"Before you understand Grigor, you must understand the kind of world he was born on." Chrysalis relaxed into her chair again. "Do you remember the windigos?"

"Of course!" They said in unison.

"Some believe that in a similar way the ponies summoned the windigos, they summoned Discord into Equestria. Some say it was because their leaders had become corrupt, which led to more in-fighting. Others think that it was because ponies got bored with their easy life and started messing with magic they shouldn't. A few think it simply was inevitable like a random monster. The fact is that Equestria was a beautiful republic founded on the principles of Friendship by some nice ponies you know very well about."

Twilight nodded and Cadance grinned as she spoke. "Yes. Princess Platinum, Clover the Clever, Smart Cookie, Puddinghead, General Hurricane and Private Pansy."

Chrysalis grinned maliciously. "Except Platinum was not a princess, and was a vicious viper, Hurricane was a megalomaniacal plothole, Pansy was a tool, and Smart Cookie was incredibly dim-witted. The only ones worth a damn were Puddinghead and Clover. And… Star Swirl. Still, Puddinghead kept to the business of his family, Clover only cared for his studies and Star Swirl… He was the mighty, the great and powerful Archmage. Full of himself."

"I don't understand." Twilight's eyes were torn with confusion and disappointment.

"Ponies change, Twilight Sparkle." Chrysalis said plainly. "Their journey looking for a place to run from the windigos changed them. Well, Star Swirl wasn't with them, but they influenced him. They became friends and changed each other. Then the Fire of Friendship banished the windigos and they brought the others to the new land. They founded Equestria and for three hundred years it flourished so fast and so brilliantly even other nations wanted to be a part of it. They founded the Senate of Equestria and it was composed of representatives from all provinces of the republic, all races that composed it, yadda, yadda... Meanwhile, the Archmage governed the Mage's Guild and they cared for the sun and the moon."

"Sounds… Great." Starlight was as confused as were the others. "Why did you say that corruption might've summoned Discord?"

"Because they changed again. By the time Discord arrived, they were back the way they used to be. You will notice they lived far longer than any of the ponies today. Hum…Platinum was over five centuries when she died. Their families held the Republic hostage of their wealth."

"They didn't want to let go of their power…" Twilight mused. "They used life extension spells. But why would that have summoned Discord?"

"Like I said nobody knows why Discord appeared. But I wonder, because any creature that is drunk with power don't usually simply hoard it: they use it."

"You think they abused their stations and became corrupt?" Applejack asked.

Again, Chrysalis nodded. "Regardless, Discord came and he… I don't know what exactly he did, but he knew very well what he was doing. The Republic fell within days. Nations worldwide crumbled. He messed with our heads. Ponies, griffons, yaks, dragons, changelings, everything became… Corrupted, for lack of a better word. Insanity reigned and all he touched would laugh without stop and destroy everything they could. I don't understand the process of what he did, but it was like he could flick a switch and turn creatures to vicious monsters. Ponies were particularly vulnerable, but all would fall to this madness. Everything died by the millions and nothing could stop him."

Twilight frowned distrustingly and her voice carried a very derisive tone. "Discord… Caused a 'zompony apocalypse'?"

"Well, despite your unfaithful way of speaking this analogy isn't very distant from the truth." The queen sneered at her then breathed in. "Then one day everything stopped. We didn't hear him in our heads anymore. The survivors were freed but our world was consumed by destruction. You never realized Discord was that bad because you caught him early and most important: before your time, somepony had sanitized the whole story."

"It was along the following century that the sun started acting up." Chrysalis smiled creepily. "Stars vanished. The moon grew dark and the days grew hotter and hotter. We felt it in our magic, even the earth ponies, the yaks and all the less obviously magic creatures. Magic itself was damaged. The answer was obvious… Discord must have caused some sort of lasting damage."

The queen stared out a window. "By that time the Swarm had begun to reorganize its spy network and we found that, like us the whole world felt something was wrong and worse: there was no trace of his magic left. The new conclusion soon came: our world was dying. Things were spiraling out of control because the sun was on the fritz."

"Did Discord damage the sun?" Pinkie asked with a confused frown. "This sounds so weird."

"No…" Twilight answered thoughtfully looking downwards. "They didn't find his magic anymore. How did the ponies defeat him? It sounds as though they wouldn't be able to summon the Fire of Friendship nor did they have the Elements of Harmony. What happened?"

"I don't know." Chrysalis shook her head. "Whatever happened, happened at the worst of Discord. No one, even the equestrians could spare the resources to record what was happening. But I do know that Equestria's founders had survived. They lived in a small town called Everfree, near the ruins of the capital. It was then a small fiefdom ruled by two surviving families of the Republic… The Bluebloods and the Brightmanes. A few other noble families shared their little town but the gist of it was that the Bluebloods and Brightmanes owned the town. Star Swirl still headed the Mage's Guild and he was responsible for the sun and moon along with his colleagues. And doing a bad job of it. We found records of members of the guild going insane from so much as touching that thing with their magic and losing all of it within months in the beginning and days near the end."

"Wait… The Bluebloods?" Cadance gasped.

"The very same." She took a sip of a glass with a red juice before continuing. "Star Swirl seemed to know what he was talking about so everyone took him seriously when he said that our world was indeed sick. The problem was that the ponies were its disease. I don't know what happened, but he was convinced that what summoned Discord was some evil within ponies. Of course, that part bothered the rich ponies in charge, and they tried to keep him quiet. But Star Swirl was desperate like a madpony. Desperately looking for the 'Goddesses Reborn'. Because they would take the power away from the 'bad ponies' and would be able to fix the sun, control the day and the moon."

"It was amid that madness that Grigor was born." Chrysalis nodded once and spoke slowly. "The griffons love a big bully and in a dying world they flocked to him like he was made of candy. He united the griffon kingdoms but that wasn't enough for him. He called himself a descendant of the griffon Patriarchs, the creators of his race and he might've been right… He was able to cast spells by speaking enchantments as they were. He also said it was their divine mandate that he ruled the world and demanded to be called a god. He was the kind of guy that when Celestia would offer you a friendly hoof, he would nail your hoof to the wall of your house and rob it, then leave you to die. Griffons of his time liked that… 'If you can't defend, it isn't yours.'"

"Giant prick…" She concluded with a sneer.

"Griffons can do that?" Rainbow asked curiously. "Do magic, I mean?"

"Today, only one can…" She answered. "It's in their blood. Their heritage. That is why the Lion can claim to be a descendant of the Patriarchs and amass the support he has. The thing is: while he could have found out about the Patriarchs easily, he would need training for his spells At least the right words of power."

Cadance hummed thoughtfully and Twilight intruded. "Of course, it doesn't help that the current chancellor is being accused of embezzlement."

"Ha!" The queen laughed. "In the dark corners of Griffonstone, today agents of the Lion whisper of secession and armed rebellion if the Lion is not made their king. But some of them also point claws and say that their proud race was 'defanged', 'castrated', 'demoralized'… 'Subjugated'."

Chrysalis made a gesture over the table. "The thing is that griffons rallied to him. Maybe they hoped he had a solution because the sun was baking everyone alive. Despair and panic spread throughout the world and we felt like we had a countdown over our heads. But for the griffons that didn't see what happened in Equestria it could easily be that Grigor did solve something. All he would have to do is sit his ass atop a mountain and shout a few impressive words nobody else could understand."

"What happened in Equestria?" Cadance asked. In her head, she was beginning to put the pieces together.

"Something curious happened then…" The queen said mysteriously. "Get this: a cult of ponies appeared, and they worshiped the creator deities of Equestria and called themselves Children of the Sun. They spoke of an ancient pact the ponies had broken and that was the problem. Ponies were supposed to uphold six virtues that their leadership had forsaken and thus had forsaken Harmony itself. They cried that the salvation would come, through the Goddesses Reborn. The same ones Star Swirl seemed to be looking for."

"You see where this is going…" Chrysalis grinned a little more. "They claimed that their goddesses came from the sun and the moon and that they destroyed Discord and would return, eventually to bend the evil ponies and would restore the purity of their souls through freezing night or searing day and relight the Fire of Friendship."

"Wow…" Starlight Glimmer said sarcastically. "And I thought Twilight was overbearing with the friendship thing."

"Excuse me?" Twilight looked at her and the others laughed for a while. "Also, what creator deities of Equestria?"

"Beats me." The queen shrugged. "Anyway… Finally, it came to a point where the sun simply refused to set. It had grown as big as a quarter of the sky and so bright it blinded anyone who went outside. We had no idea why, but not only that magic had become corrupt… It wouldn't work. I had made my peace and was ready to die, surrounded by my children."

Ponies, dragons, and changelings stared comically at her while she made silence for a few moments. "Then…"

"The sun exploded!" Pinkie cried in anxiety.

"It did explode." The queen said looking at her and causing her to gasp in shock. "It made infernally hot winds and what remained turned darker than the night. All light vanished and it made a terrible sound, like a crying ghost. Reality began to break down around us and I felt like that thing in the sky was trying to swallow us whole."

"Chrysalis, are you telling us the truth?" Twilight frowned frustrated among her entranced audience. Cadance was annoyed Twilight interrupted her and stared but said nothing.

"Of course, I am!" The queen said, surprised.

"Really?" Twilight was now angry. "The sun exploded? And then turned black?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Sparkle. I would've taken a picture for you, but cameras hadn't been invented and I was too busy trying not to piss myself while the universe broke down around me."

"The sun cannot turn black!" The purple alicorn shouted. "That thing generates energy. How can it turn black?"

Chrysalis shrugged. "I don't know. Go ask your mentor… She's the one that understands that freakish thing up there."

"I can't believe this! The only pony I could always trust can't be trusted anymore and I'm sitting here listening to a pathological liar telling me about goddesses and the sun exploding!" Twilight screamed in frustration, making angry gestures with her hooves.

"Twilight…" Applejack's voice calmed Twilight a little and she looked at her. "I think you may be judging Princess Celestia a tad too harshly."

"What do you mean?"

"Maybe… She did tell some lies. Maybe the story we have is a romanticized one, where our founders were great and stand-up ponies, where the princesses were received with a party and they simply decided the Sisters should rule Equestria because they have the characteristics of the three tribes and all that, and that one day Celestia simply rose the sun and returned everypony their magic…."

"Your point?" She stared at her friend's green eyes almost like she wanted to intimidate her.

But Applejack wasn't impressed. "What good will it bring if we keep pushing and find some ugly truth?"

"Who are you and what have you done to Applejack?" Pinkie eyed her suspiciously. "Did you miss your element jewel or something?"

"Pinkie, honesty is important, good and all. But we're at a point where if we keep digging, we'll break the dam."

"Applejack!" Twilight yelled. "Chrysalis mentioned the Bluebloods! They are still alive! Archduke Blueblood could have a legitimate claim to the throne of Equestria!"

"What the hay?!" Applejack shook her head. "Twilight! Listen to yourself!"

"I find it extremely difficult to believe that the archduke could maintain the confederacy in the same way the Princess does." Rarity said as though the mere mention of the name was offensive. "I believe that the throne is in good hooves with Celestia and Luna."

"Yeah!" Rainbow gained the air flapping her wings excitedly. "But we should do it! I mean, Chrysalis might be telling us horseapples, but imagine if the Princesses kicked some butt to protect Equestria from the evil ponies!"

Pinkie immediately stood up and started kicking the air with her forelegs. "Like… Princess Celestia had to fix the sun! And then they had to take control of Equestria from some evil king and Star Swirl helped them! And then she fought the evil griffon emperor! And then ponies started following her because they were so awesome! And then…"

"Or maybe Princess Celestia thinks herself some angry goddess that decided to punish the whole world because of some stupid thing!" Cadance said angrily and brought down the excitement level in the room to glacial levels. "Or perhaps she killed somepony and stole the crown for her! Or even, she held Equestria hostage with the sun along with the whole world!"

The ponies, the dragon, and the changelings present stared at the teary-eyed princess, but she went on before they could say anything. "I don't want to live in a world where the closest pony I have for a mother has done something awful! Like… Like… Conquering the entire world in a giant war just because it was her divine right or something like that. But if that is what happened she needs punishment! For lying! To all of us!"

Twilight understood their points. She lowered her eyes and took in Cadance's words too. Now that she was calmer. The fact was… The world already belonged to them. Twilight included herself in it because she was a Princess of Equestria. She was the same Celestia was… Given the adequate proportions… When Twilight traveled to distant lands, griffons, yaks… And changelings… They all saw a Princess of Equestria in her. A justiciar trusted by what they recognized as the very magic that made their world work, to right the wrongs. To protect.

Sure, some insisted that Celestia made her an alicorn, but they were wrong. The dragons didn't care about ponies and their laws and the buffaloes had their own thing going. But they were all friends. They were listened if anything happened and they would listen to Princess Celestia. Especially Ember, nowadays. They welcomed the decisions of the princesses.

Wasn't that exactly what Princess Celestia was? An alicorn like Twilight. Twilight didn't choose to become a princess. Neither had Cadance. It happened. Whatever power governed the magic of their world decided that she ought to be one. As it did with Celestia. With Luna… Even if Luna became Nightmare Moon, she was chosen too.

Twilight frowned a little as it dawned on her. Princess Luna did something wrong, but she was still made an alicorn. Rather than thinking that this magic would make a mistake Twilight would think that she was made an alicorn despite that. Whatever happened was part of some greater plan. And that made sense considering Princess Celestia might have done something wrong. She was still the 'north' Equestria followed. She was nothing short of their sun.

Whatever she did ought to be celebrated or remembered like Nightmare Moon. Not pushed under the rug and forgotten. Especially because thinking clearly and remembering the old pony she knew; her old mentor probably did something amazing. Legendary. Maybe she weaponized the sun, or maybe… Just maybe… She fixed the sun. It didn't make much sense that an evil pony would become what Celestia had become.

With a renewed purpose she turned to her friends again. "We have to find out the truth. Not because Princess Celestia must have done something wrong, but because whatever happened must be made known so that all can judge for themselves. And knowing her… It probably was something outstanding she didn't want to take credit for."

Cadance seemed convinced enough and as her 'partner' Twilight was too.

"What's our next step, them?" Starlight stepped next to Twilight. "We know for sure that things happened we didn't know. We know the sun got all screwed, that Discord arrived sooner than we thought, in relation to the arrival of the Royal Sisters and that things may not have been very friendly. We also know that Grigor, the griffon Emperor, did exist and was a threat."

"Well, Chrysalis didn't know much more about what actually happened when the princesses arrived or how did the ponies deal with Discord." Applejack said with her accent. "I reckon we need to figure out what happened to the griffon army?"

"Good one, Applejack!" Twilight grinned, and the changeling queen talked behind her, from her desk.

"It did arrive in Equestria. They certainly sent letters back to Grigor. We never caught one of them, however. They used good messengers… Griffons can fly far."

"They were probably destroyed…" Twilight caressed her chin. "The griffons certainly would've destroyed everything they got their paws on when they sanitized their history."

"What about what they didn't get their paws on?" Spike offered with a raised finger. "I bet this Grigor guy knew when things started going south for him and took precautions."

Twilight agreed with a nod and then looked back to Chrysalis. "How did he end?"

The queen grinned mischievously. "Celestia offered him friendship. When he didn't accept it, she beat him to death with it."

Twilight turned around and looked more directly at her. "Wasn't she busy fixing Equestria?"

"The griffons called for help. The nicer griffons that would rather live in peace. After Celestia and Luna did become the rulers, news of them spread far and fast." The queen said calmly. "How did you think that things started with the griffons? But their nobility didn't like it one bit. However, when she offered them friendship most were smart enough to accept it. For the time."

"Well, small wonder the griffons thought ill of the princess!" Applejack looked at the princesses. "Helping them erase their history, I reckon his supporters got iffy about it. Up to this day and with the Princess Meddling Accord…"

"The Alicorn Concordat, Applejack…" Cadance frowned.

Twilight nodded. That much she knew: the part the griffons omitted was about Grigor. It probably was around that time King Grover did his thing. Maybe he united the kingdoms after they split after Grigor and did join the confederacy in a similar way to their told story. Yes… That made sense.

"If the Lion knows how to use their speaking magic…" Cadance mused. "He certainly found other documents of that time."

Applejack smiled. "Five Bits say he has a bunch of letters and, I reckon a scroll or two."

"Nice!" Rainbow grinned. "We have our next destination! Griffonia!"

"Yes!" Twilight agreed. "All the way to his fortress in the north."

"Uh… Yeah, Twilly…" Shining came closer to her. "You're not taking my wife and child to a place ready to burst in civil war."

Cadance raised an eyebrow at that and Flurry Heart seemed ready for a fight!

"Aw, come on, Shinny. You'll be there to protect us." Starlight Glimmer giggled, drawing the same from the others. "Not to mention… Have you forgotten who you're taking to?"

"Yeah!" Rainbow jumped excitedly. "We're Equestria's flank kicking squad! We're escorting Princess Twilight Sparkle to talk to local leader."

Shinning wasn't amused. "Dash, we're not talking about 'chasing off monster adventure'. It's going to be griffons. With combat barding. Muskets, swords, pikes. And not necessarily nice town militias: gruff and violent mercenaries commanding scared conscripted griffons. Far from Equestria's heartland and the eyes of the Princess."

"Oooh… Bad griffon boys." Pinkie elbowed at Rarity who giggled more than she would like to admit.

Twilight did her best not to giggle. "It's going to be fine, Shining Armor. We can watch for ourselves."

"Twilight, you have never been shot at. No one ever tried to murder you with a mace. You have never killed another being that wasn't a monster." He argued and she got a little angry.

"I have dealt with dragons, Shining Armor. They don't shoot they rip you apart and breath fire on you."

She stared for a second. "No offense, Spike."

"None taken." He waved a hand casually.

"Shining…" Cadance used her 'not angry yet but you better wise up voice' "We routinely fight monsters, train hard and do pretty well in our weekly sparring sessions. Specially Twilight and her friends."

Shinning Armor sighed in defeat. "Fine. Can we, at least take your guards with us?"

Twilight grinned and offered him a hoof. "That, we can do BBBFF."

He simply smiled and bumped her hoof.

"Cool!" Rainbow said, excited again and flapping her wings. "We fly to Ponyville and teleport to Griffonia?"

"Griffonstone, more precisely." Twilight added. "From there, we charter a flight to Griffinsky. Or the next best thing."

All agreed, except for Shining Armor, who was still worried. Finally, Twilight turned to Chrysalis again.

"Thank you, Queen Chrysalis. You were invaluable." She said with a smile.

"I'll drown you in chlorinated water next time I find you in my Spawning Pool." The queen answered with a blank expression.

Cadance stared at her with a similar expression. "That reminds me… We are still Princesses of Equestria and I would really like to know what is it with the tall changeling soldiers?"

"Eye candy." Chrysalis replied nonchalantly. "What queen doesn't love strong, tall guys in uniform?"

Twilight kept staring at her, holding a very annoyed expression, and Cadance almost accepted that line of thought. Until the queen spoke again with a smug grin. "Surround yourself with some studs, Twilight. Celestia has about two thousand and an alicorn like a dream."

"I think it's about time we left…" Twilight said with an inkling of annoyance in her voice. The others simply agreed and followed her out after Chrysalis' guards opened the doors.

But then Cadance stopped by the door and the others passed her. She turned around and looked at the queen sitting behind her desk. Each stared the other in the eyes for an instant. The princess didn't really have much energy left on her after all that's happened since they arrived in the Changeling Rock, but there was one other thing that kept bugging her from the back of her mind like a small, infuriating pebble stuck under her horseshoe.

"Chrysalis… Are we… Friends?" She asked cautious, but certain.

"I suppose we are." The queen said, her own gaze falling. "I'm new to this friendship thing… But I haven't killed you for intruding on my Spawning Pool. Why do you ask? Stop beating around the bush."

Twilight was surprised. Maybe Cadance would've gotten better results if she had talked to the queen from the start.

Cadance sighed. "What about the legend?"

Twilight stared at Cadance with curiosity. She likely had been wondering the same things she had since they arrived.

"What legend?" Chrysalis Frowned.

"Of Mother Farfalla."

"There is no legend of Mother Farfalla. It's the Legend of Queen Chrysalis." Chrysalis said plainly.

Cadence rolled her eyes impatiently. "Is it true, though?"

Chrysalis hummed and smiled, slowly flashing her sharp teeth. "The thing you want to know, and is afraid of asking is… 'Did Night-Made-Flesh exist?' And 'Is she Princess Luna?' After all, the Children of the Sun preached about the Goddesses Reborn. Star Swirl believed them and… What do you know? We have a princess to care for the day, and another to care for the night. Legends are dangerous things, though. They change over time and they often fit too well what the people who spread them wanted to believe. Particularly in times of great strife."

"Is it true, though?" Cadance repeated herself letting her frustration slip into her voice. "Didn't you just tell me to stop beating around the bush?"

"You are not listening, Cadance. There was a time I made changelings believe that Princess Celestia ate changeling larvae." The princess simply stared at Chrysalis with a blank expression. "It's propaganda. You demonize your enemy and sanctify your allies."

Cadance nodded once and turned to leave after excusing herself. The others followed, including Twilight but she was a little confused. Did Cadance believe that Luna was the goddess?

Twilight thought it was well within the realm of the reasonable that Luna was Night-Made-Flesh. Hold the 'goddess' thing. It made her think it was a thing of the time. The legend may have 'retouched' her appearance and gave it some more drama. At the same time, it seemed a little strange that Luna would do such a thing. But, if she really did resent ponies not liking her night enough, she might have been offended at the rejection, already in an unbalanced mental state.

Thought it did make her think why is it that she wouldn't reverse the curse now.

Finally, she grunted internally. This whole affair was a mess and she was tired. She wanted nothing more than to return to her airship and sleep. Even if it would be in its tight quarters.

As the doors closed Chrysalis remained in her chair and Thorax approached her. She had an amused expression and tapped the table lightly with a hoof.

"Is that why you created the Praetorians?" She looked at Thorax and he sounded and looked like a lost puppy. "I thought I looked well enough."

She merely sighed. "I have to go to Canterlot… I was planning a trip, but I need to hurry… Celestia needs to catch up with them before they reach The Lion. You need to stay and make sure all the reporters that will flood in after they hear Twilight and Cadance were here can't learn of what they found."

"This sounds serious…" He said ominously despite his earlier question.

"It's not. Not right now. But remember that saying about the children playing with fire while the mother is away?" He nodded yes. "Cadance and Twilight are flailing around with a flamethrower."

The queen paused for an instant and grinned mischievously. "Not to mention I can't wait to see the look on Celestia's face when I tell her…"


	6. The Pony Who Sold The World

The Senate was a large building annexed to Canterlot Palace, big enough to house one office for each of the elected representatives of all regions of the Federation and the Hall of Friendship which was a large meeting hall organized as an oval hall and divided in three areas. The first and largest with seats for each representative and their subordinates as well as several chosen members of the legislative branch of every federative unit.

Though the terms 'Senate' and 'Hall of Friendship' were used interchangeably because the vast majority of the population didn't care enough about the difference to care. They were the ponies, griffons, yaks, tall ponies, zebras, hippogriffs and whatnot that helped The Princess rule their world.

The Hall of Friendship was divided in four distinct parts. The part where chosen representatives sat was known as the House of Chosen. In the center and towards the back was, simply, the Podium, with a simple pulpit. The whole thing had a 'amphitheater feel' to it because of its physical disposition.

Behind the Podium was the House of Majesty where would sit the respective leaders of every nation in the Federation that the people elected. Or were where chosen in some magical convoluted way. Or simply born out of the right parents. The Equestrian Magistrate was still looking for expressions to include all that might apply. The preferred ones were 'king or queen', 'princess', 'president', 'chancellor'… There were others and it was a mess, but it worked because there was one above them that knew how to make it work. At least that was how they thought.

Atop and in the back was the Golden Throne who must shine upon all with her wisdom. Because some millennia ago a crazy wizard decided it would be a great idea if the freaks with the wings and horns ruled a city since they united the traits of the three tribes! Four legs too, but those were kind of unmentioned… Of course, it wasn't that simple at the time and there may have been a few angry debates, some families, cities and whole countries throwing themselves at war and even one or two murders or marriages… But that was the gist of it.

There was also the fact that she could make the scary ball of we-don't-know-what in the sky work and that her 'little sister', could make the stars and moon play nice, not to mention scare away the Nightmares. But those were a conversation apart and 'little sister' was more of a caring way of referring to her because both were so old the difference was negligible and both kind of felt like they were the mother of Equestria. Or mother and cool older sister. Or something. That too was kind of a mess.

Above the House of Majesty were banners for each of Equestria's federative units with the Coat of Arms of the Two Royal Sisters in the middle. Behind the House of Chosen the decoration included a sword crossed with a hayfork and a hammer. Those and the banners were meant to remind the members of each House of the power the other represented.

'The Princess', The Mare, The Big Alicorn, and several other equally silly titles for Princess Celestia sat on her golden, blue, red and white throne, surrounded in gold and silver adorned with an image of the combined sun and moon, right above and behind Queen Novo, on her wooden chair. Next to her was the minotaur president and on her other side was the griffon chancellor, Silkfeather. Not his real name, but he had accrued the nickname for being so good with words. More to the left of Queen Novo was the Saddle Arabian Sultan, Withen.

Those were the leaders who felt their actual presence was necessary even though their representatives and those of their people were present as well. They had the chance to skip meetings should they want. But not her. She had to sit her flank there every time they met, even for the dumbest of reasons.

Actually, she knew that the minotaur president was there simply because he was having trouble with insomnia and some of these sessions were a panacea of cure for that.

The griffon on the Pulpit, Senator Geoff for the Snow Mountains Hold of Griffonia went on and on his discourse to the point Celestia wasn't entirely convinced the griffons weren't trying to waste all their time and stall any meaningful conversation. Maybe it was some sort of evil plan to disrupt the government process. The meetings had turned into an endless cycle of accusations and praise from one side to the other and themselves.

What infuriated her is that she had already declared that the griffons were entitled to choose their own leadership and that was an internal issue of their nation and that The Golden Throne wouldn't impose a decision upon them unless they couldn't reach a reasonable agreement, and neither should the Hall of Friendship. They seemed to have taken this as an indication that she would move in favor of their positions if they managed to annoy her enough with the undeniable rightfulness of their chosen side.

And that was without the Majesties and representatives whose nations felt entitled to weigh in on the discussion. Such included Mount Aris and Saddle Arabia, right next to Griffonia and that was why both Novo and Withen were present.

When the griffon finally finished his speech and was equally booed and praised by the griffonian assembly, Princess Celestia collected the piece of paper in her desk and spoke with all the dignity she always did. "Thank you, Senator Geoff from Snow Mountains Hold, Griffonia. Next the assembly will recognize Chancellor Gail of Griffonia."

Of course, it was always amusing when the chosen representatives of any one nation didn't agree with or simply didn't like their Majesty. Not so much the griffon she called, a white and blue old one rose from his seat in the House of Majesty he was booed by a series of the griffon representatives (and their aides, of course).

"Respect for his Majesty, please." Goodness gracious, she could feel the headache coming already. "Need I remind you that Chancellor Gail was chosen by the very same griffons that chose you to be here?"

Why did she have to say that? She regretted her words as soon as they came out of her mouth. She simply wasn't used to the climate this whole affair had brought to her house.

One of said senators rose from her chair. A particularly feisty and angry brown griffoness from one of the cities in Snow Mountains Hold with a penchant for hurting others' reputations and what Celestia chose to think of as 'personal reputation'. "That was before we started calling him Silkfeathers because he was so wimpy! And certainly, before we saw that he was stealing our nation's money! And I'll be damned if he isn't also stealing Your Highness' money meant for your griffon subjects!"

And then her vociferous speech was received with clamor. Of course, because Celestia was convinced that Princess Celestia's Money was very important when it helped attack their political enemies, but it was an attack on their nation's sovereignty when it went against their interests. Oh… Her poor head.

"Will the esteemed senator allow her Chancellor to speak, and thus allow us to listen?" Novo had already lost her short patience and Celestia could see the storm rising. She had hoped that such a scene could be avoided… There were actually important things in the agenda that she would like to see addressed. But Novo didn't relent. "There are more things that ought to be addressed than your Lion being crowned king of the griffons or the nth speech telling us ignorant why is it that he is the best thing ever as though there are no other ways of ruling a nation beyond his intended autocratic monarchy!"

"You are an autocratic monarch yourself, you stupid hen!" The griffoness cried shrilly and was followed by the typical round of laugher, shocked cries and reproaching comments.

"Order, please!" Celestia's ears turned back. She really didn't like the recent way senators had taken to hurl insults at one another and the Majesties when they disagreed with something as a way to disrupt the discussion. She despised that tactic and it made her regret the whole idea of the Hall of Friendship and of popular representation. It seemed that these creatures forgot the reason they were there the moment they passed the door. "I should remind you that Queen Novo is to be respected as all members of the assembly and that Chancellor Gail is being investigated, and he is to be considered innocent until proven otherwise."

"This is outrageous!" Someone yelled in the House of Chosen, without revealing themselves, obviously. "Why is Princess Celestia protecting this political criminal?"

And then, like a dam that broke the whole assembly devolved into a group of uneducated teenagers throwing insults from one side of the room to the other as though they were morsels of food in a food fight at the cafeteria.

"Order please!" Her hoof hit her table several times to no avail. "Enough! The meeting is adjourned! We shall meet again in two hours!"

Since no one but her personal guard next to her, Chocolate Velvet, seemed to have heard her, she simply left her throne and retreated into the back room. They could scream and whine all they wanted now. Without her there, it had the legal force of a bunch of foals whining to each other. Her guard obviously followed her.

Now, the malicious tongues spread rumors that when the Princess did so, she would indulge in the 'well-endowedness' of her newest consort and personal guard because of the sounds that came from that door behind the Golden Throne, but in reality what followed was a session of the Princess thrashing about in the large couch and screaming into a pillow and then proceeding to rip it apart with her teeth, hooves and magic.

"You know, the pillow isn't to blame. It's the third one this week." The brown alicorn by the door told her with a bored expression. But then he closed his eyes and protected his face with an armored leg when the pillow started hitting his face repeatedly while enwrapped in golden magic. "Ow. Neither am I."

Finally. she relented with a sad sigh, forcing herself to relax in the couch. At least she could keep next to her newest consort and champion. Well, that was an exaggeration, but he would be her champion. Celestia was patient and her beloved was devoted. Like Sir Mockingbird was her champion way back during the First Griffon War and others in the times of wars, bloodshed and death. Or those valorous souls in a forgotten past, like Wild Oats and Cinnamon. Best not to dwell on those memories. The present, with its angry senators and potentially evil griffon tyrants was still better.

"I can't believe this!" Her hooves found her face and her whine spoke of teenage levels of angst he was more used to find in Luna. "My enemies have been defeated. I left many broken in forgotten battlefields and I even managed to take away all the power and fortune from those evils within the ranks my nation and I diluted their bloodlines until they meant nothing. I managed to make friends out many of my enemies. Somehow, I still ended up surrounded by bloodthirsty beasts that start stabbing each other as soon as I turn my back! I'm their greatest savior when I agree with them and the greatest threat to the Confederacy that I joined when I disagree."

Federation and confederacy were other terms that were used interchangeably, like Princessdom, Principality, Diarchy, Tetrarchy, Empire… The mess of a part of the charm. She just liked Confederacy more because it implied that joining was voluntary. It meant little in reality, just like she was a Princess and only she and Luna remembered why the title stuck.

"Yay democracy?" He chuckled and that caused her to giggle. "Hey, I thought that I was the greatest threat to Equestria since the bookworm nerd."

"Pff. Believe me… The drama they caused when Cadance appeared was worse than Twilight's crowning or our marriage. Maybe Luna is right. They yell and whine at her and she just 'uh-huh…' " She giggled some more and then she covered her eyes with a lazy leg. "That was not how it was supposed to be. They were supposed to trust me and that was it!"

"This is naivety, Celestia. You're smarter than that." He approached her slowly.

She sighed and turned on her belly, letting her head rest on the armrest and her wings relax. "You're right…"

"It's usually the elected ones, Celestia. Some feel like they own their electorate the fiercest of representations without fully understanding the issues or even their desires. Then there are your bloodsucking vampires. I suppose the majority falls in between. This is nothing new to you."

"Yes…" She agreed lazily. "But I suppose it is good to be reminded of that every now and then."

He approached her and she sat on the couch, letting her back to him and his hooves promptly began massaging her shoulders and back, eliciting a low soft moan from her.

"Are we going to have a tournament this year?" He asked her while his hooves worked the strain out of her muscles. It always amused how different she was from Luna and Cadance. She had a different kind of elegant softness. One that was tempered with a larger frame and powerful muscles under her pristine coat.

Those were not really the thoughts he should be entertaining at the moment and her answer distracted him. "Absolutely. Especially with this whole mess with the griffons. You have to win this time, though."

He let out an uncomfortable laugh. "Ah. Don't worry. I'm going to win this year."

"I should hope so." She stared back at him with a grin. "Else Luna will have to dance with Sir Mustang Wings because I certainly won't. That or Twilight and Cadance will have to start taking part in these rather than simply eating and participating in the festivities."

Then someone knocked on the door. Both froze and silenced themselves. At least until Celestia whispered to him. "Quick! Make some grunting noises!"

"What?" He whispered back.

"They'll go away if they think we're… Busy!" She whispered with urgency. "Do it already!"

"Are you serious?"

Then she kicked his nearest leg and he yelped.

"Oooh… Yes… Just like that! Oooooh!" She just stared at the door with her best impression of delighted lover, or a choking drunk bear. Chocolate Velvet wasn't sure.

That notwithstanding the door opened and revealed both Queen Novo and Sultan Whiten staring at her with less than pleased expressions.

"I can't believe you actually opened the door!" She stared at them.

"You are naïve sometimes Celestia." Whiten wasn't particularly amused.

Then Novo followed up. "Not to mention that Princess Cadance published an article worried for the Senators. She found out that these meetings lower libido faster an imitation of King Sombra."

Celestia simply stared frowning at them for a second. "I don't know what part of that concerns me more! What in Tartarus is Cadance doing with the money I send her?!"

The two Majesties walked inside, and Novo sat after her companion closed the door behind them and held her griffon paws together to her chest. "Please, do something about The Lion! He is going to turn everything on its head! I don't even understand how the griffons think that they're going to keep their position in the House of Chosen with him in power! He is going to strip their power away!"

"I am doing something about the Lion, Novo." The princess stood from the sofa. "I am taking precautions while I am respecting the griffons' right to choose their own leadership. He has certainly promised his supporters a comfortable place in his court while the others will certainly lose their position. But this sort of reform is within his power to make if the griffons chose to give him that power."

"But Celestia they don't understand what they are doing!" The queen disputed. "They have it inside their heads that The Lion will take care of them like they see you caring for the ponies! Everyone, really… But that is beside the point!"

"How can you know that he won't? You are afraid for your nations. Not for his. This line of argumentation is hypocritical, and I expect better from both of you! And if he does fail at that, then that is a lesson they need to learn." Celestia spat back. "And then when he does, they can turn back to us!"

"But my life is limited!" Novo insisted earnestly. "You know this! You keep saying this. It will be damn hard to live my life to its fullest with a brutal tyrant next door! I don't want to Skystar to grow up in fear of the Lion like I did with the Storm King! Please Celestia! Help us!"

"I will give you a lifetime supply of _awamat_! If you do something about The Lion before he can be made king!" The white and gray tall pony whined. "Please! You are making me beg!"

"You too are looking at this in a completely wrong way!" It wasn't common to see Celestia openly chastising someone, but Chocolate got the feeling she did it more to snap the two out of their panic. "The Lion needs to see that the legitimacy of his rule is recognized or else the extremist among his followers will be validated. Not only that, but you are both blind to the reality of the situation: this is an opportunity to do business with a new leader whose entire promotion comes from moral correctness."

"They have slaughterhouses in their cities! You abhor that!" The hippogriff barely kept from yelling.

"I know. But that is a cultural trait of theirs that we need to change with understanding and patience. You are only bringing this up because you want to demonize them."

"I would say that systematically murdering a race is pretty demonic." Her tall pony companion argued back. "Specially one that is so dependent on their caretakers."

"I agree, but it's not that simple and much more nuanced than that! If I try to fight them bluntly on that issue, we won't get anything but a secession war! Please, be patient! I have enough trouble with Justiciars treating the issue as though it warrants a war!" Then Celestia frowned. "Not to mention that hippogriffs predate fish and other sea creatures. And even saddle arabian tall ponies, as much as other ponies give fish and sometimes game meat imported from north Griffonia to their pets! This line of thought is hypocritical and damaging to mutual coexistence."

There was a good measure of uncomfortable silence until Celestia spoke again, back to her typically calm voice and expression. "Please. Trust me, as you always do. I will not allow them to harm you or your beloved ones or your people. But I cannot allow you to do the same to them."

"The Lion is dangerous. But he can be brough to understand our points of view if only we begin by understanding his. We are not at the time for impulsive action yet. And most importantly, that seldom solves problems."

Since they still didn't reply, she went on a little further. "Reach out and show that even if he thinks you… Us… Inferior, we are good folk willing to give him and his species the space they need so that we can find a common ground where we can coexist."

The two visitors looked at each other and exhaled. It was actually quite funny. It was always amazing to see Celestia 'at work' and it always amused Chocolate Velvet. Though it probably helped that her subjects were reasonable to begin with. The Lion worried him too, and he knew that he worried Celestia, even for reasons she hadn't disclosed. Heck… Luna freaked out about the griffons every now and then, but both Princesses seemed adamant that the right way to deal with The Lion involved parsimony.

"Should we go back?" Novo pointed backwards with a thumb and Celestia simply shrugged.

"I doubt we would be able to do anything meaningful." Then she smiled. "Might as well go for lunch."

They stared at each other for a second before Withen agreed with a sigh. "Yes. It doesn't seem like there is much good to be done here today. Well, thank you for talking to us, Celestia."

They said their goodbyes and left, leaving the two alicorns alone in the back room until the chocolate colored one spoke after she kept silence for too long, thinking somberly staring at the closed door.

"So… Lunch?"

She smiled at him. "Let's see Luna. I'm sure she'd like to have lunch a little early and we can spend some time relaxing together."

"Sounds like a plan." He grinned at her, following her out, but they were stopped by a pegasus pony of the palace's staff.

"Sorry to bother your highnesses." He said demurely and then showed her a sealed letter he produced from his saddlebag and held in his mouth, offering it to Celestia.

"Oh. Thank you." She smiled and took the letter to read. The pony simply bowed respectfully and left.

"What is it?"

"Nothing too important." She caused the letter to vanish in a puff of smoke. "Let's meet Luna and have lunch. Hopefully Harmony will reign again in this place after some time."

Chrysalis watched as that thing Twilight Sparkle called an airship departed from the Changeling Rock. The large windows of the royal quarters let her keep watch over them for a long time, as the craft gained speed and disappeared against the evening sky.

She was actually angry. Her privacy had been invaded, none other than Twilight Sparkle had been snooping around in her nest and now she knew more than the queen wanted her to know. It infuriated her. The whole thing should have progressed much more smoothly. She was, indeed, furious. Had Celestia tried to blindside her?

A couple of years or so ago the queen wouldn't have batted an eye before annihilating the three adults and baby. At the present Chrysalis understood better.

Thorax still waved at the departing airship, like a moron. A year back, she probably would've broken a beating stick on his head while screaming all the ways he disappointed her. In the present she couldn't help but smile at his dorky way. Did Cadance feel like that about Shining Armor? Did Celestia feel like that over Chocolate Velvet?

A year back, she wouldn't bear to call those creatures surrounding him as her children. Her children were supposed to be strong. They were intelligent. They preyed at the ponies.

Now the Swarm was exactly what that failure of a mother of hers wanted! All of this! Mother Farfalla, Chrysalis and her sisters, everything because of one stupid pony and one petty goddess! But the worst was that Chrysalis had almost fixed everything! She had the genes for the worker castes under control! She had the genes for the king right where they deserved to be, crushed under her hooves! She had her fierce and love-starved warriors! She was supreme! She was The Queen!

During that time, Luna's refusal to admit she was Night-Made-Flesh from the legend simply infuriated the queen even more back then. She had demanded a compensation but Celestia and Luna were adamantly denying it. In the end she didn't have a choice.

It took Chrysalis being starved to near death for her to see how foolish she was too. Add to that the fact that in the first days past Cadance's magic she felt like it had ruined the perfectly woven layers of magic that ran through the Swarm. The best traces of the Swarm, honed and distilled into perfection, were gone! It was a mess again.

This is how Chrysalis felt before in her own way… The ravenous hunger made her aware, the burning anger fueled her magic and she could feel the insatiable yearning that pulsed through the Swarm compelling her children to seek out their prey and feed upon it like wolves upon the lambs.

Without her the Swarm had turned back to what her mother wanted. A week after Cadance's magic she needed a good portion of her magic just to bring back her soldiers so that creatures of the badlands wouldn't sense their weakness and eat them alive. Like the giant anteaters that lived to the south… They creeped her out. Back then she still wasn't used to it and her body insisted on informing her of all the chemical signals those unhinged aberrations flooded her nest with. Those happy feelings. Their empathy as they took every step possible trying not to hurt each other's feelings. It made her crawl under her carapace!

In the present watching the airship fly away the happy feelings her swarm offered her made her safe in the fact that they wouldn't be starving anymore. Did she regret killing her mother? Chrysalis hadn't come to that point yet. She still thought that her brutal tyranny was what kept the Swarm alive until then.

Did she resent Luna? Maybe she wasn't Night-Made-Flesh… So many layers of lies and secrets in this whole mess the Sisters have created.

Looking at her desk she saw one of the letters Celestia had sent her. When she came to senses about what had happened in the Spawning Pool Chrysalis had never felt so betrayed before. It was a strange feeling. Why did she care so much?

Curse Celestia. Two years ago Chrysalis thought she had found an ally despite all that Celestia had convinced her to do. It did reinvigorate the Swarm, but they had lost their edge. They were now weak and if Celestia wanted she could wipe them off the face of Equestria forever. Or worse… Let the Lion do it for her.

As she watched the changeling returning inside her teeth showed in an angry grimace. Celestia sure got what she wanted. Everything! Had Celestia maneuvered her in a way where she would promise the world and then take everything from her? Had she committed a strategic mistake in trusting the old matriarch? She knew of what Celestia had done to the noble families that ruled Everfree after she took to the throne. Most ponies didn't remember, no one still alive to remember and today they wouldn't believe. But Chrysalis had seen it. She saw the monster Celestia could turn into.

Or was all this a result of Chrysalis frustration? She had tested Twilight, but she might have known she was being tested. Was Chrysalis projecting into the naïve pony all her malice and cunning, trying to see something that wasn't there simply because it would've made sense to her? Or better yet, to her old self she regressed into in a moment of anger?

For the first time in her long life Chrysalis had trusted someone… She hadn't sent a spy to make sure Celestia was making good on her part of the bargain. She did everything she promised.

Chrysalis held to the thought that despite all that she had felt these two years, Celestia knew what she was doing. She was thus confused. She didn't expect Celestia, of all the creatures, to try and deceive her. After her own mother and sisters, all the wizards and hunters that tried to trick her Celestia was the one that seemed the most like she could meet in peace and simply trust, leaving all the tiresome lies and masks. Maybe that was why that particular betrayal hurt so much.

She felt frustrated too. That was the problem with lying: she got so used to lying and being lied to that when someone was true to her it felt that she was being lied to even worse.

Anyway, she must see Celestia. Both to make sure she hasn't been doing foul-play and to warn her of Twilight's visit. It was time to deliver on one of her promises too. It was decided, she had to go fast too. Celestia would lose Twilight if she made it to Ponyville and teleported to Griffonstone. She only had a day or so, but it would be enough. She didn't have to rely on an airship after all: long-range teleportation was a privilege for few, and Chrysalis included herself in that group.

It was a very nice morning in Canterlot. All of Equestria really. The sun had only begun its journey across the sky and ponies around the capital started their day, but in the palace the day begun much earlier. Its staff ought to have everything prepared for its daily routine as soon as the princesses had performed their duties to the cycle of day and night of Equestria.

On this particular day the Royal Guard recruits were taken to another place on a 'field training exercise and so, instead of the typical yelling of the drill instructors and racket of their recruits the sounds that dominated the palace's backyard was that of the tinkling and rasping of fencing weapons. A rug with the relevant markings had been spread over the grass near a round table that was overtaken by all the delicious things a luxurious breakfast of ponies would include.

Not only this was a fine morning, but Celestia knew that she was going to finally get something she's been waiting for a while. It was something special. It would be the fulfilment of a dream. Rather the latter part of a dream already in the process of being fulfilled… But, details! So, she decided she'd do something special for her new, unlikely friend.

The two fencers moved about, forward and backward lightly on their hooves which barely touched the rug. Their necks and bodies were protected by white padded barding while their legs where protect by similar leggings. Their weapons danced close in front of them striking and deflecting while their users danced balancing their movements and avoiding the other's blade.

Since her opponent wasn't very used to the physical rigors of standing on her two hind legs and holding a fencing weapon on a foreleg, she had opted for the unicorn style of rapier fencing, telekinetically holding their weapons by the handle.

That proved to be a mistake.

"This mare is a cheat! If grabbing her weapon was allowed, I would have won three times over!" One of the fencers said in fake anger with her very familiar and usually kind voice muffled by her fencing mask. "You do it more to infuriate me than to win!"

Next to them was a well-groomed earth pony with sand colored coat and whitening black mane pulled back and tied behind his neck. He wore a formal outfit in blue, impeccably dressed as he watched the bout with careful eyes. "Might I remind her highness that I am the referee?"

"You're a sore loser, Celestia." The other fencer accused with a playful tone. Her black coat appeared where her barding and mask would allow and both had their manes and tails bunched and tied as to avoid any accidents, and hers was light green.

"I am a sore loser when I am being cheated on!" The blades hit each other, striking and deflecting, went and came, brushing past each other and both hit the padded barding of the other, both lighting in magical blue and red in the areas they were touched over the necks of their wearers.

"Point for Lady Morticia and she wins the bout fifteen to fourteen." The pony said to the delight of the black coated fencer and causing the other to fume in frustration. Both of them raised their weapons and saluted each other and their referee.

"Oh, for pony's sake!" Celestia complained to no one in particular as she removed her mask. "You are unbearable!"

"With all due respect, your highness. If you suspected your opponent would play unfairly, you should've requested the full judge team." The pony next to them said in a haughty tone, looking at the princess. "Excellent technique however, Lady Morticia had the priority with a superior parry."

"You are becoming as blind as bat, Épée. She held her weapon too far from her barding." She replied as she let one of the servant maids of the palace take her mask and proceeded into undoing the strappings of her barding. The other fencer was doing the same, allowing her delicate face and velvety black coat to shine in the morning sun next to Celestia's pristine white. "And you, I shall have your blade tied to your barding next time."

"I'll have you know, princess." The black coated mare said in a mock offended tone. "That this whining over being defeated, fairly might I add, is very unbecoming. Maybe next time, we should try a cake eating contest."

Celestia laughed, and the other chuckled more reservedly while she followed the larger mare towards the table were Luna sat and ate a cookie. "You're better with the saber, Celestia."

Next to her stood a couple of helpful young mares, wearing the palace's maid uniforms. As the pair sat next to Luna Celestia talked to the maids. "It's alright. You can leave us."

The two smiled and bowed respectfully then retreating from the area while mister Épée's assistants retrieved the rest of the equipment used in their fencing match. Celestia then served tea for herself and her companions.

Lady Morticia was a strange unicorn, tall as the white princess yet lacking much of her bulk. She watched while Celestia served them and released her mane to fall over her back. Finally, Celestia gave her the tea.

"I am glad for your visit." The alicorn said tasting her own tea. "Still, I must ask if there is anything wrong. We expected your visit next week."

Luna simply sat at her place, eating another cookie and listening.

"Yesterday, Twilight Sparkle, Cadance, Shining Armor and Twilight's entourage showed up in the Changeling Rock." The black unicorn said with a serious tone and Luna stared at them, frozen mid bite into her cookie.

"What happened?" Celestia asked with a worried tone having left her cup on the table. Suddenly all her happiness had vanished, and the meeting turned serious. She almost regretted the fencing match and Luna's presence.

The queen under the unicorn disguise, though was afraid of the answer she might hear. She was afraid she'd hear a lie, or a truth that confirmed her fears. It would mean that she'd done a terrible strategic mistake. One she thought herself above. Still, she had to answer. "That prized pupil of yours…"

Under a storm of emotions, the black mare spoke in an angry tone. Anger being the emotion she felt easier to express given her fears. "She violated my Hatchery and entered my Spawning Pool. She even brought one of her friends, Cadance and the baby."

"The baby?" Luna raised an eyebrow. "She took Flurry Heart?"

Their visitor sounded violated. While she never had much interaction with her, Celestia had the impression that she didn't usually sound like that and Luna looked worriedly at her. She shook her head. Celestia would treat this as if one of her little ponies came to her asking for help. "I don't understand. Was she touring the hive? Visiting Thorax?"

"She wanted access to the Archives."

Celestia frowned. "How in Equestria did that get her to the Spawning Pool?"

"Apparently a not very professional changeling in my guard thought that it would be faster for him to deal with them if he threw them at another changeling, who had to leave in a hurry and left them alone in the anteroom. Twilight decided she could get my permission to see the Archives and used that as an excuse to snoop around." The queen under the black mare told Celestia as honestly as she could her gaze shifting between the two princesses.

"I hope you punished him appropriately." Luna commented with an angry frown.

"This is beyond the pale." Celestia said with her head lowered. "Not to mention a pure violation of somepony's privacy… And a break of royal decorum. I never expected Twilight to do something like that. Much less Cadance."

She shifted her eyes, looking more ashamed than anything, but it was a good kind of shame, that of a mother who first heard of her child having done something particularly stupid and unwarranted rather than that of one who had been caught in a lie. And Luna… She looked about ready to burst into tears and apologize, even if she hid it well, certainly afraid that the changeling queen could revoke her side of the bargain. The black mare breathed a little easier. They really didn't know…

There were many things those mares were better at than she but lying was one of her specialties.

Then there was Luna who sounded like she was ready to take a switch to their flanks. "It's outrageous. One would expect finer social tact from an adult, and from a pair of princesses, some more."

"I don't know what to tell you, Chrysalis." Celestia shook her head. "I expected them to be more sensible."

"In their defense, I don't think that they understood what they were doing and had no ill intentions."

"Do you want us to do something about it?" Celestia asked sheepishly. On a side note the sight amused Luna. It was not usual to see Celestia wearing that expression.

"No… I don't think it's needed. They got enough of a scare. Besides, there is something else I must talk to you two, and I have something to give you." The black unicorn said with a particularly toothy grin.

"Oh! Is it ready?" Celestia clapped her hooves together excited and grinning like she'd been promised a gift. Luna simply perked her ears.

"Yes, it is." The unicorn smiled too as her magic produced two small, rectangular and rounded steel cases. One marked with the moon and the other with the sun and both shone in the sunlight as the unicorn held them in their magic. "These cases are magic-resistant, but once open anyone else's magic will ruin it."

Luna and Celestia paid attention like a pair of her students would as the queen under the unicorn went on. "Each has two shots. The needle must go deep into muscle and every drop of the liquid must be injected. You should take one before sunrise and the other before sunset. And you before moonrise and before moonset. It's when your freaky magic acts up and how you know it's time, anyways. So, it shouldn't be a problem. If you don't do it right, it's magic won't be effective, and your own magic will reject it."

That worried the white princess, while Luna held her case in her magic staring at it like it was an ancient magical artifact. "What could happen?"

The unicorn shrugged. "At best you'll feel the hangover of your life, at worst you'll produce little monsters that look like they came out of a kindergarten _papier-mâché_ nightmare."

"This isn't funny, Chrysalis…" Celestia chastised her.

"I know! You don't want to know how many times I had to incinerate the laboratory trying to make your perfect coltfriend work." The queen chuckled darkly, back to her old sarcastic self now that she felt better. "If he starts having nightmares with fires, you know where it's from."

Luna's eyes grew as big as the plates holding the cookies on the table and Celestia barely restrained her annoyance. "She's joking Luna. I'm the one that performed the spells that formed his body and bound his soul."

After a while, Luna grinned a bit. "Well, it would make for a great Nightmare Night story."

Celestia sighed and Chrysalis chuckled before she spoke again. "By the way I've disposed of the test subjects. Wouldn't want an angry clone coming after you in a hundred years…"

"Cease with these jokes, Chrysalis." Celestia threatened her and Luna stared at the metal case sitting on the table, in front of her.

"Did they suffer Chrysalis?" She asked, looking a bit sorrowful with her ears folded.

"No." The queen said plainly, and it took her a few seconds before she realized why it was important. Then she lowered her voice. "Not in the way you're thinking. I had to experiment, but they were never conscious. Nothing more than flesh golems to test the substance and if the biology would work with it. They're gone now… Incinerated. They didn't even look like you."

And thanks to Twilight not being too nosey, nopony else had to see them. Inside, Chrysalis felt relieved. What a mess for nothing that would've been. She almost regretted putting Twilight through her laboratory now that she knew what the purple alicorn actually was after.

Meanwhile, Luna discreetly looked over to Celestia. Her older sister had grasped the metal case and hugged it like it was a foal. In her expression, with flat ears and closed, trembling eyes, she saw tears being held back. It hurt Luna, knowing how much more this sort of thing hurt Celestia, for all her understanding of how these things worked. She respected her feelings and said nothing, instead simply looked away.

"We thank you, Chrysalis." Celestia finally said a bit saddened and very thankful. "It was a lot of work, but we will make the most out of it."

"Well, I'm glad it worked." The queen dressed as black unicorn relaxed a bit on her chair, but she also noticed Celestia's unsaid sorrow. Though she didn't respect it quite as much as Luna. She didn't understand. Thus, she tried to lighten the mood. "What's next then?"

"We should heal the changelings." Celestia said, but the queen shook her head.

"We would go back to being ponies. Not to mention we would need my mother."

"There are ways to have Farfalla back." Celestia suggested carefully, intent on putting all her cards on the table. "It would be most unnatural and profoundly unpleasant, but I believe it is a sacrifice she would be willing to make."

"No." Chrysalis said again. "It's our identity now. It's who we are. And some ponies are better off dead."

A small silence prevailed for a few seconds before Luna spoke again. "Then, the next step is adding your biological sciences to equestrian medical services."

"Perfect! Where?" The queen was excited, making a gesture with her hoof, but neither of the two could see if she was making fun of the issue. Anyway, Luna answered to her.

"No. We'll start with older ponies and terminal diseases. Not with a place."

"Old ponies." Chrysalis laughed. "Is that what we're doing? Because I don't know anypony older than you two. I thought I was buying my seat in the House of Majesty."

"I told you, Chrysalis." Celestia chastised her again, in a much softer voice, however. "The changelings are entitled to representation anyways."

Luna raised her eyebrow. "Considering Thorax is the head of civilian affairs; shouldn't he be the one to seat in the House of Majesty? I thought that was why Chrysals was buying anything."

"Yeah… I doubt that we would be very welcome without you two telling the others that they don't need to freak out. Even if you put Thorax there." Chrysalis said sarcastically. "If that happens though, you can expect to find his head next to you on your bed next morning. I am more than able to rule the Swarm by myself."

She was going to threaten them with Chocolate's safety but thought better. That would've hit too close, and Celestia didn't seem like she could take a joke right then. Instead of that Celestia spoke softly. "Chrysalis isn't buying anything Luna. She is entitled to it. She's been ruling the Swarm for centuries. Besides, they can share the seat once Chrysalis feels more confident in him."

"Yeah, right…" The queen said. "Just don't put me next to the yaks and it's fine."

What followed were a few more seconds of silence as the three collected their thoughts. While the queen felt relief that she hadn't been siding with the wrong ones and Luna felt happy that things were working right, the older one blocked intrusive thoughts of some copy of her that had a life stolen for her selfish reasons. Sometimes Celestia hated knowing the things that knew.

Besides that, Luna was happy that with some luck Equestria would soon meet a new age of medical advances and Celestia looked forward to the next alicorn baby to be born in Equestria. At the same time, she knew all of it would reflect positively with the whole mess the griffons had brewing. Come what may, ponies would look forward to a happy and prolific royal family. Not to mention that, her more selfish reasons aside the things the changelings have shown combined with zebra potions could make the soon arriving war much easier to bear. She's seen too many of them, and this time she hoped that, at least they could better tend to the injured.

If only she could tend to the dead.

Finally, after a few cookies and sips of tea, Luna's ears perked up. "How are you and Thorax doing?"

"He's…Trying very hard. I appreciate it. I really do…" Chrysalis held a cookie in her magic, smiling thoughtfully. Then her expression turned sour. "But it's the most boring sex I've had in ages. He won't even pull at my mane."

"Eeew!" Luna complained. "Too much information!"

"Grow up, Luna…" Chrysalis said accusingly and Celestia giggled.

Good, both Chrysalis and Luna agreed independently, Celestia was her happier self again. It almost hurt physically to see her sad.

Still, Luna grunted in annoyance, back to Chrysalis. "You said you had one other mater to discuss?"

Chrysalis let her smile show. "Oh, right. Remember I told you Twilight wanted access to the archives?"

"Yes." Celestia looked curious while Luna munched through a cookie. "What did she want there?"

Chrysalis grinned. "Cadance unearthed a letter addressed to King Sombra signed by your old friend Grigor of the Holy Griffon Empire, and took it to Twilight, and that is why they went to the Changeling Rock."

Luna had seldom seen Celestia's face turn from happy to sorrowful, then back to happy, and finally to serious and to barely contained terror in such a short time. She almost held her breath as Celestia held her own before speaking. "What did the letter say?"

"Nothing much. It was about the sun going haywire soon before you came. They realized that some of the things they had been taught were… To put it lightly, untrue. They're now wondering who that wonderful Grigor fellow was, how did the ponies deal with Discord before you and the Elements and on their way to Griffinsky, to talk to the Lion, since they thought that he'd have more documents of the time and area."

That was another thing that Luna didn't see often. Celestia was angry. Or afraid. Knowing how deep that rabbit hole went Luna figured it could be both and she, herself, was very preoccupied, but seeing the mighty Celestia so terrified of her former apprentice finding out certain things she did her best to hide in the past… It was the sort of thing that a pony only saw once in their life.

Knowing Celestia and the whole story Luna couldn't help but be amused and couldn't control her giggling. In fact, her nervousness made her even more giggly. "That house of cards lasted for millennia, only to fall because Cadance found a random letter and took it to the one pony that would not rest until she knew all there was to know about it."

Finally, Luna burst out laughing. "Harmony has a sense of humor!"

"Luna, this is serious!" Celestia chastised her. "You know as well as I do that there are things from that time that should remain unknown. Not to mention that you are as much implicated as I am!"

Try as she might the blue alicorn simply could not control her guffawing anymore, but her expression changed becoming more and more frantic. "Sorry! I'm just happy I was here to see your face when that thing finally blew on you! Oh, my stars… What a mess. We need to stop them before this becomes public!"

"Oh my…" Chrysalis grinned mischievously. "Tell me you killed someone important."

"No!" Celestia snapped back at Chrysalis. "What did you tell them Chrysalis?"

"I tried not to tell them more than they already knew… Just enough to satisfy them. I incentivized them to go to Griffinsky… It's a long journey and should give you time to react."

Celestia let a sigh of relief. It wasn't so bad. There was plenty of room for maneuver. Twilight would try to return to Ponyville and them teleport to Griffonstone. She could intercept them at Ponyville, talk with them and make this whole thing go away. Better not to raise too much of a racket… Talk to some ponies, make sure that Ponyville's teleporter was a closed door and get the city's guard to take them into custody. Discretely. When the dust settled and they rested for a bit, she'd meet them at Twilight's palace and talk it over some tea and cakes. Everything would be fine.

Finally, out of her thoughts Celestia saw that Luna and Chrysalis stood sitting next to each other, staring at her.

"See? She's hyperventilating." Luna said pointing with a hoof, and the black unicorn disguise looked inquisitively at her with half-closed eyes and a hoof under her chin.

"That is disgustingly cute. I hadn't notice it before."

"Are you two done?" Celestia threw her napkin on the table after cleaning her muzzle and got up. "Luna, we have to stop them. I'll contact the Ponyville Militia and get them to capture Twilight and her friends. I'd rather not be too aggressive or get too many ponies involved, and if this fails, you must talk to them in their dreams while I work our next maneuver."

"Perfect, sister." Luna wore a serious expression. "So… Should I stay here in Canterlot?"

"No. I need you to go to the Crystal Empire. Cadence may go there if things go wrong for them in Ponyville."

Luna frowned a little confused. "Do you really think that she would abandon the others?"

"No. That is not it." Celestia shook her head. "I think that she might try to leave Flurry Heart there or she might want to collect their barding and weapons. Having you there to intercept and get her under control would be a good thing."

"Yes. That makes sense, sister. After I'm done there, should I return to Canterlot?"

Celestia nodded. "I will probably be out a few days and you will have to take care of things here."

"I will Celestia!" Luna put on a brave face despite being terrified of all that entailed: if Celestia was leaving, she'd have to hold court. She'd have to preside the senate meetings. Talk to the weird tax ponies! She wanted to ask her sister to stay and let her go, but the thought died quickly: Twilight was much more likely to listen to Celestia in person than to herself… Her realm was the dreamworld where she too would do what she could when it was time.

Despite being sure she never let anything show her older sister held her face delicately on her hooves and touched her forehead with hers. Luna would never know how could Celestia tell. "You're their boss, Luna. They're more afraid of you than you are of them."

Sitting on the table, holding her cup in her telekinesis and taking a sip, Chrysalis looked at them. "Isn't that the sort of thing you tell to somepony who is afraid of dogs?"

"Don't forget you're Chrysalis' boss too." The white one said with a grin and Luna giggled, to the queen's dismay.

"I'll wait to find them in their dreams until, and if your plan in Ponyville fails." Luna said with a smile. "Be careful Twilight doesn't get to your nerves… You tend to do stupid things then your close ones are involved."

"Thank you, Luna." The older sister said with a small peck on Luna's muzzle.

Then she trotted inside the palace, while Luna and the changeling watched. Then, the queen came near Luna, carrying her cup of tea with her. "Would this be a bad time to discuss taxes? I mean… Technically, I have dozens of children."

Luna sighed. "Won't you return to the Changeling Rock?"

"No." The queen said nonchalantly. "There are some forty babies in there and Thorax can deal with them. I've been doing that for the last millennia."

Luna frowned. "Don't you have to care for them? Feed them, or something?"

"No!" Chrysalis made a disgusted expression. "That disgusting milk business is a pony thing. Now that Celestia made me unlock the civilian castes they can circle the love around until they get more."


	7. The Princess War, Pt 1

In the morning of the second day the Magic of Friendship kept a fast cruise towards Ponyville. The group of ponies in the princess' sleeping quarters all woke together since remaining asleep just wasn't possible once Flurry Heart decided she wanted her mother's attention and that of course, was the baby's prerogative. Nopony would complain. Fluttershy even thought it was a little cute.

The small cabin in the back of the airship was like a very small and spartan home for seven with only the barest of decorations. Holding ten ponies and one small dragon it was a bit overcrowded but as in two-day trip to the Changeling Rock that certainly didn't bother the close group of friends.

Cadance was just happy that she had found food the baby could eat. Of course, mashed apples but it was better than nothing. And the weird changeling larva suit did a decent job of protecting Flurry Heart from the cold air. Though she had a suspicion that her daughter was more resistant than most babies, when comparing her to all the things the older mothers and books in the subject told her about it, she wasn't about to test the idea. She was just satisfied the baby was happier than she was after the angry shouting in that night in the Changeling Rock. They had been all tired and this morning, after a couple of nights of sleep and some food they were all in a better mood.

While the other ponies spread throughout the airship Twilight remained laying in the bed next to Cadance who was feeding the baby with their maid's help. Shining Armor sat at Twilight's desk, writing something and speaking to the captain. Spike remained in the room too, idly lounging about somewhat paying attention to his brother and the ship's captain. Additionally, Applejack and Rarity stood nearby too, one casually looking out the window and the other carefully brushing her mane while discreetly eyeing the ponies.

"So…" The dragon suddenly spoke next to the alicorns. "Are we going to take Flurry Heart with us?"

The mother sighed. "I was thinking about that Spike. I don't really want to take her. But I think I have to go with Twilight."

"I could stay with her in Ponyville, Princess Cadance." The maid said. A petit aqua-colored crystal pony with a light pink mane cut in one of the many the fancy styles in the Crystal Empire. "Or, if you wanted it, I could take her back to the Crystal Empire through the teleporter."

Flurry Heart immediately protested, and Twilight stared at one and then another. "Alternatively, you could take her with us. I mean, it's not like we'll be in any sort of real danger."

"Sure…" Spike 'agreed' sarcastically. "It's not like three princesses in griffon lands will draw much attention from angry griffons that don't like the princesses."

Twilight sighed in defeat. "Spike may be right. Maybe leaving her and Miss Calcite in Ponyville would be a better idea."

"I suppose." Cadance agreed and, next thing she knew a significant quantity of mashed apples found its way towards her face to the sounds of a very angry and displeased baby pony. Twilight grimaced and the baby's mother swore that her baby could understand every single word they said. She wasn't sure, but thought babies were not supposed to be like that.

"I don't think that she likes the idea, your highness…" Calcite offered her one of the napkins.

"Well, too bad!" Cadance's magic held the napkin swiping it over her face. "She doesn't have a choice."

The baby protested again, but Cadance pointed a hoof and stared seriously at her. "No."

While Flurry Heart seriously considered biting her hoof, Shining Armor approached them. "So, Twily, what's your plan?"

"When we arrive on Ponyville, we'll dock the ship. You and Cadance can go to the teleporter, buy our passages in advance and send Flurry back to the Crystal Empire with Miss Calcite. Meanwhile, I'll be in the palace with Starlight and Spike checking if there is anything that needs my attention and the girls will make sure everypony knows we'll be traveling for a while and also grab their things."

"We should also buy some more supplies." Applejack offered.

"And take them through the teleporter?" Twilight shook her head vehemently. "No. Too expensive."

"Gee. It's not like they're going to charge us, Twilight." Spike countered.

"Spike! Operating these teleporters isn't that cheap! We can't impose like that on them!" Twilight craned her head and almost shouted. "We can buy anything we'll need in Griffonstone."

"We should buy a few things, Twilight. No doubt take a few apples from the farm." Applejack insisted. "We can afford to pay their weight at the teleporter. Not to mention that things should be fine in Griffonstone, but we really don't need to gamble. We got enough problems as it is!"

They didn't notice, but Cadance dreamed about griffon rum. One day…

"Applejack is right, Twilight." Rarity added. "There is also the issue that griffon food is dreadful."

The farm pony nodded positively. "I'll take Pinkie to the market and get some other things. Not much, just enough."

"Alright then." Twilight acquiesced. Not only Applejack and Pinkie Pie understood more about those things than she did but letting them do their thing was usually a good idea. The discussion over, ponies retreated into their thoughts for a while and Spike thought for a while if they shouldn't just go to straight to their destination. Probably wouldn't be a good idea without proper supplies, even if they should be in a hurry.

"I'll take them to the teleporter, Twilight." Starlight offered after a few seconds. "Ponies there could create a fuss because it's them and the sooner we can move on the better."

"Alright." Both princesses and prince agreed.

"And what do we do when things go wrong?" Shinning asked.

"Hum… They won't?" Twilight wasn't too sure herself.

"Yeah… They always do." Spike stood with Shining Armor, arms crossed.

Twilight frowned. She hoped that nothing would go wrong. What could go wrong? Well, it was Ponyville, for starters… Not to mention that Twilight was hopping that Chrysalis wouldn't bother, but nothing kept the Changeling Queen from already having sent a magical letter to Canterlot and having told Princess Celestia everything. It probably was a good idea to have a second plan. "We… Meet back at the airdock? Maybe we should leave the briefcase in the ship… If things went wrong and we needed to flee it would already be here and we wouldn't have to carry it back while having to deal with whatever problem happened and our supplies."

"Twilly, I have another question… Why don't we talk to Discord?" Shining asked her. "Seems like he was at the middle of it all from what Chrysalis told us."

"For the same reason we're not going to talk to Princess Celestia. We can't trust him, Shinny." Cadance told him. "I mean… It's Discord. Not to mention that he might want to stop us. Like I bet Princesses Celestia and Luna will."

"As a matter of fact, we really shouldn't trust Chrysalis either." Applejack said from the window. "I mean, she may be an ally now, but there ain't nothing holding her from lying about anything. Including that story of hers."

Saying that the orange pony remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again. "It pains me to say it… But I've been convinced that maybe trusting the princesses wouldn't be that good an idea either, considering what they might do to protect whatever they must. Discord, well… It doesn't even need to be said."

Twilight remained silent but she didn't necessarily agree. She thought that it might be worth the risk if Discord talked to Fluttershy. She'd keep that possibility in mind, after all the best word to describe Discord is 'chaotic'. He might be concerned with assisting the Sisters, but he might also not care enough to take their side and not spill the truth. He still wasn't the most reliable of sources, but honestly, neither were Chrysalis or even her old mentor at that moment. But he might do until she found any form of evidence upon arriving in Griffinsky. Which should be an adventure on its own.

Finally, she wasn't sure she believed Chrysalis story about what happened, but she didn't really have much of a reason to lie. She did confirm that the Legend of Mother Farfalla was true. Or at least closer to true than most ponies believed. Then she wondered if those things were connected. They didn't seem like it… It would be nice to find something about a possible Day-Made-Flesh, but she could never find anything.

For some reason it simply creeped her out that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna could be some weird kind of deities. She didn't quite understand where did the Children of the Sun's belief about the Goddesses Reborn come from. It was a bit specific and, at the same time vague. The very concept of a god was obscure among ponies and tended to be more associated with the yaks and the buffaloes. But, regardless that whole affair most likely was colored by the perceptions and hopes of the ponies of the time who must have sought solace in the stories of other races.

The problem was that the whole story was incomplete. And that was why she needed to figure it out.

Come what may she figured she ought to be prepared for anything. And thus, what Rarity would say next didn't surprise her.

"Twilight. Princess Cadance." The white unicorn began from the window. "We must gather the others and have a conversation. Before we arrive at Ponyville. I'm afraid we may be sticking our hooves in a situation that is a few degrees above us."

Both understanding what their friend had in mind the princesses agreed, and the others were called to a meeting in the ships deck, near the bow and including the pegasus crewponies. There Twilight raised a hoof and asked for everypony's attention.

"Attention everypony, please. I think it would be reasonable if I explained to you what is happening." She said but didn't go on immediately instead measured the reactions of her crewponies and read both apprehension and curiosity on their faces. "Princess Cadance has found an old letter that indicated some things we needed to investigate… But before I explain, I want all of you to promise me that you will keep silence over anything you hear. If you can't I ask that you leave now. It is very important that the secrecy of our mission isn't compromised, or we could lose the chance to do it properly and the consequences could be dire. In fact, they could be dire one way or another because we will delve into a web of lies and there could be civil wars and a lot of pain and…"

"She means that she needs you to keep your mouths shut or take a flight." The blue pegasus next to the princess said with a blank expression while her audience of pegasus crewponies wondered why was it that the alicorn started breathing heavily and her eyes seemed to grow bigger with every word.

Twilight took a deep breath and then stared at the group of pegasi in front of her group of friends. They stared at each other expectantly and then back at their princess until their captain spoke their minds in his gruff voice. "We're ponies of Equestria, m'lady. Way I see it, we're loyal t'you. 'Sides, you need us to keep the _Magic of Friendship_ flightworthy and we're kinda like you's royal guard already."

With that said, the other pegasi went back to staring at each other and soon were nodding instead of staring expectantly. The captain, after a final look over his crew nodded at his princess with certainty.

"Well, thank you very much." The princess said with a smile.

Finally, the two princesses explained the whole situation, their findings and suspicions, to the airship's crewponies. While it seemed like some of them regretted their decision of jumping in, none of them seemed too likely to betray them or something of the sort. At least that was what the two princesses betted on, hopping that Applejack had some sort of 'honest pony' power that would tell her that one of them was likely to betray their mission. Or something of the sort.

Seeing that Cadance thought it better to speak before any of them thought too long about those things. "We need a clear plan. We can't be sure of what will happen, but we must be prepared to deal with anything as best as we can."

Then Rarity said the exact opposite Cadance hoped she would say. "I believe we should be prepared for dire consequences that might come from our actions. Whatever may be the truth we are going against Princesses Celestia and Luna. I though it should be mentioned that the two of them would be… Dangerous at worst and formidable opponents at best… Should one fall ill of their graces."

"Well… About that…" Twilight drew attention to her again. "I don't think that the princesses should hold any grudges… I think that they're the nice and dedicated princesses we know and love, but they may have done something and thought at the time that hiding it was a good idea. Today I believe our society has reached a level of maturity where we can deal with some bad things about our past."

Twilight almost grimaced at her own words when images of ponies panicking at a bunny stampede floated before her eyes.

"So, you're saying we know better than the princesses?" Pinkie raised an eyebrow. She didn't seem very convinced either.

"It sounds bad when you put it like that, but yes." Twilight said adamantly despite it all.

"Well, we are princesses too…" Cadance added not amused. "It must count for something."

At least, the crewponies still didn't look like they were ready to mutiny any time soon.

All cities under the grace of the Royal Pony Sisters were protected by their local militias. They were commanded by a trusted official chosen by the local and by the county administration. Obviously villages, cities, towns, hamlets… Whatever their size needed protection and Ponyville was under the protection of Lord Protector Lieutenant Grape Donut.

A few years back he had excitedly accepted the job when Mayor Mare, after being elected for the first time asked him to replace their former commander of the local militia. His first act as Lord Lieutenant Protector of the town was recruiting additional militiaponies, modernizing their equipment and making sure all of them were prepared.

Turned out there was good reason Mayor Mare asked him: Grape Donut dreamt his whole youth of taking that job when he was ready. And to make sure he would be ready he prepared himself: he studied from the best militias in the land, from north to south, west to east, he made sure to understand all the tactics and procedures used by militias all over Equestria's mainland and also the ones used by militias of other races.

It was the second happiest day of his life because the next day he asked his sweetheart in marriage and she accepted. But the most important thing was that Ponyville's Militia Commander was ready to take on the world, all dreams of grandiose as the town's protector against all the monsters that lurked around! The title of 'Lord Protector Lieutenant' was even better. It was a title of nobility, it meant he could take control of the city in case the mayor wasn't available, he had a military patent under the Princesses service, and it said 'PROTECTOR', right in the face!

Two days later the Princess's Protégé arrived in Ponyville. Some ten years later he hated his job. Possibly his life.

Ponyville had become home to the Fourth Princess of Equestria and to the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, to one of Equestria's most powerful spellcasters, and if that wasn't enough the Third Princess constantly visited along with her personal guard and with her husband, who happened to be one of the best knights in the land and Captain of all three branches of the Royal Guard. Five, if one counted Twilight's budding Royal Guard and the local militias themselves.

Not even the crown-sponsored knights, the monster hunters, typically visited Ponyville if not on vacation or to meet the Fourth Princess and ask her hoof in marriage or some other knightly thing like that.

Because of that what passed for crime in Ponyville was the random abandoned cart or somepony's dog eating another's petunias. Monsters? They either avoided Ponyville like the plague or the princess and her friends would take care of it. Failing that any monster too tough for them was too tough for the militia to handle anyway or it was some weird supervillain that for some reason always ended up near Ponyville. So, why bother?

Ponyville's militia accrued the reputation of uselessness and incompetence and its militaponies took it in with excellence. Grape Donut was convinced that if somepony ever made a theater piece about Ponyville it would certainly neglect its local militia. At least his job paid. And he could give all the comfort he wanted to the kids he wanted but would never have because romance died the day he and his wife realized what kind of life they would live. It was, of course all his fault.

Thus the pony decided he would sit his flank in his office and eat all the donuts and drink all the coffee available in the region until he couldn't find any more. Then he'd get all the way up to Canterlot, tell Princess Celestia how much he hated her and her new princess and then jump off one of the city's balconies.

Of course, Ponyville had one of the best bakers in the land so he kept postponing the climbing Canterlot Mountain part of his plan and kept to eating all the donuts Sugarcube Corner could produce. The irony that one of Twilight's friends worked there didn't escape him though. He just couldn't do anything about it.

He would totally tell the Princess a piece of his mind though, if he saw her one day.

Of course, Grape Donut wasn't the only pony 'working' in the Ponyville Militia Headquarters. There was also Semolina Pudding, a light cream earth pony mare with rosé eyes and a red mane she kept all curled and shiny. She happened to have married Grape Donut, fallen all over his knightly ways and dreams of protecting the town the day after his appointment as the town's Lord Protector. Now she also hated the Princesses and possibly her husband but didn't spend her time eating donuts. Instead she would spend all day staring at the reception room's clock until the damned thing would tell her she could go home or reading tales about the great knights of the land. Her title of nobility might be worth something in another town. But in Ponyville it was about as valuable as Twilight's leftovers.

When the door opened her reaction was changing to the next page of the adventures of the dreamy Sir Stout Lance. When she heard somepony clearing their throat she stared at the clock… The damned thing had barely moved a few minutes from the shift's start, and it felt like she had spent a whole hour there already.

"Semolina!" She heard the mayor's angry voice and made the monumental effort of lowering her book to see Mayor Mare's angry scowl at her.

"What?" She asked drily.

"Would it kill you to give a little attention to ponies coming through that door?" The Mayor sounded more offended than angry. Not that Semolina cared, anyway. "Roseluck's garden was ruined because you ponies took so long to do anything about those rabbits. Again!"

"The horror…" The other whispered.

The mayor sighed. "Nevermind. I need to talk to Grape Donut. It is very important!"

"All right… Fine…" Semolina walked from behind her desk and kicked the door that led to the office space and her husband's office in the back. "LARD TUB! MAYOR MARE WANTS TO TALK TO YOU! BRING YOUR FAT FLANK OVER HERE!"

The mayor grimaced and recoiled at that, but shifted her ears trying to listen to what seemed like an answer. The only word she could make out had something to do with female private parts.

"Will one of you losers drag that waste of a pony here?" The receptionist talked to nopony in particular staring at the thirteen ponies sitting by the desks and doing several things, none of them related to crimefighting or typical militia business.

"Nevermind, Semolina." The mayor said trying not to show her distress at the scene in front of her. "I'll go talk to him. Thank you."

"Whatever." She went back behind her desk and took her book. Paid no attention to the mayor as she stared at her with some concern in her eyes. To Mayor Mare she seemed to have seen better days and she could swear that her coat seemed dull. She thought Semolina should take better care of her coat, for her sake. Ponies look sick when their coats are dull.

But it wouldn't be worth it to talk to her now. Past the door the cigar smoke and the odor of coffee and donuts were almost thick enough to physically resist her. She stared at the ponies sitting on their desks. Not a single one wore their leather barding, at least two of the desks were empty and one of the militiaponies, a particularly cute and young pegasus mare flirted with one of her coworkers. Somehow, the mayor doubted the two missing ones were outside doing any kind of work they should be doing.

Rather than bothering with them the mare went through the desks straight to the wooden door with a bronze star hanging on its side with the Lord Protector Lieutenant's name. She didn't bother knocking, and instead simply pushed the door and went in. His office was rather small with a file cabinet, his disorganized desk with its ever-present box from Sugarcube Corner full of donuts and also a thermic bottle next to a coffee mug.

In the wall was a picture of a strapping young earth pony with a bright grape-colored coat and brown mane, happily smiling at the camera and with stars in his eyes. Under the picture, behind the desk was the actual Grape Donut. A severely overweight earth pony slouched over his chair with a disheveled brown mane and a discolored coat and not caring one bit about the what the mayor might have to say, by the lifeless look in his eyes.

"Mayor Mare…" He served a mug of coffee and offered it to her. "Coffee?"

"How can you be so inactive drinking so much coffee?" She stared at him and then let her frustration show in a sad face and a sigh. "What happened with you? You were so happy when I asked you to be our Lord Protector!"

"This is the Ponyville Militia, Mayor Mare." His voice was distant, and he looked at nothing in particular. "This is where dreams come to die and cutie marks weep."

"Well, it is your job to motivate your troops! They look like they could use some motivation." She pointed a hoof at him. "For crying out loud! Semolina treated me like she hated her job!"

"She does."

The mayor sighed again. "Well, I got a letter about you!"

"What? Is the Archduke complaining to you about ponies complaining about me?" He swayed his head from one side to the other with each word, almost in a scornful way.

"It is from The Princess!" She barely contained her voice, desperate to rouse the pony into the importance of the situation.

"Which one?" He stared blankly at her. "We got five. Or was it six?"

"The Princess." The mayor stared angrily at him.

"What does Twilight care about me? She doesn't even know I exist." He rolled his eyes.

"No!" Mayor Mare rose her voice a little more. "THE Princess! She's asked me to see why is it that you haven't answered to the three urgent letters she's sent you!"

He blinked twice. "The Mare's sent me three letters?"

"One in the night, another right before dawn, and another some fifteen minutes ago!" She hoofed angrily at the floor, counting.

He blinked twice again and looked for his inbox, somewhere under all the mess of papers, donut crumbles, colorful sprinkles, more papers with random doodles and several drafts for different versions of his abdication letter that never got sent. When he did find the inbox there were indeed, three rolled up scrolls in it.

"Huh… What do you know… This thing does work." Under the mare's angry stare, he grabbed one of the letters and quickly read it. "The princess wants me to detain Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends, along with Captain Armor and Princess Cadance. Apparently, there's been a misunderstanding and she's coming over to talk once we have them secured."

The mayor grinned hopefully. "Well, if The Princess is asking… Do a good job and maybe the ponies will like you more and I can get more funding for our militia!"

Yeah… He could imagine all the love he'd get from Ponyville for arresting their heroes. Or how hard her personal guards will beat the daylights out of him. Maybe he should just find the last draft of his letter and get it sent to the commissioner's office. But then he'd have to listen to Semolina complaining and yelling at him the whole week. It would probably be better if he did what the princess was asking, after all.

Twilight's airship approached Ponyville at a low altitude. The captain kept the ship on course, unworried. A pirate attack would be the biggest danger short of a storm or strong winds, but neither were very likely in that fine day. As the good airship crewpony he was he had checked the weather schedules before they departed Ponyville and there were no planned weather interventions in their flightpath for the whole duration of the trip to and back from the Changeling Rock.

He didn't know about his crewmates, but he didn't worry about his conversation with the princesses and their friends. Whatever happened he was sure they would end up fine. And if things went according to plan he'd request being included into the Princess' guard as it was in the process of being commissioned. He could picture himself on one of those magnificent bardings, bearing the sigil of the princess and created in the enchanted forges atop Mount Canterlot by the Royal Guard smiths and enchanted by the princess herself. It made sense… Her guards would crew her airship.

Commanding an airship took more than good eyes and great instincts, but a certain connection to her own magic. As if it had a soul of its own each one was different and took some time getting used to. And the princess' airship was a furious beast that required a tight leash.

Unicorns and earth ponies usually lost control of these modern airships because of the lack of visual references, but pegasi were made to fly. They could feel every ebb and flow of acceleration, and the captain could swear that he could feel in his very bones whenever the ship asked for more power against the crosswind or when her sails got in the way of her performance. It was like they became one as soon as he stood behind her wheel.

That was why he thought it was weird when the Princess came to him and asked if anything was wrong. He knew the unicorns could feel if something was different with the magic the ship radiated, but he had complete control over the airship, and he knew she was perfect as could be.

"Nay, Princess." He said under her worried stare. "Everything is shipshape."

She had her ears turned back and something bothered her. She had never felt like that before. It was as if somepony was hidden behind every corner, every shadow, watching her. She felt a strange sensation of being intruded upon. Like somepony had entered the house, which was weird because she not even was at home.

It was the weirdest thing… Even though she was safe in her ship, with her friends and family, every sense in her body was trying to tell her to be careful. That she was not alone and could be in danger.

She grumbled. "Keep your eyes open, please."

"Aye, Princess." He said, a little distrusting of something he couldn't quite identify. He trusted the princess and her instincts, though. Meanwhile Twilight went down into her quarters where the others were preparing to disembark. She didn't say anything but kept paying attention, looking for whatever was wrong and eluded her.

Without delay, the ship made its way towards her drydock out of the city and close to Twilight's palace. It was a simple hangar, like a big barn with doors and the internal structure to secure the ship completely powered down. She thought it curious that the captain had decided to dock her aft-first but said nothing. He probably was acting on her words and preparing for a quick escape. The crew moored the ship and they started disembarking.

She was already walking on the wooden planks above the ground when the captain called to her from the railing. "I'll keep'er spinning… Just in case, princess."

She thanked him silently but didn't think much of it and took the way to her palace while the others would do as they had planned and would meet with Starlight Glimmer, Shining and Cadance in the teleporter facility.

On the way to the teleporter Flurry Heart was in an awful mood and Cadance kept trying to console the baby, saying that she would be at home with her toys. But Flurry didn't care! She was being put out of the action. Besides, being far from her mother meant she'd have to take the formula and she hated it. But adult ponies were stupid, and her mother didn't understand that she should take her in that travel too.

Along the way things seemed normal on Ponyville, until they came to a street near the teleporter facility's square that gave them a good view on the building and the area in front of it. And, while it all seemed perfectly fine to Cadance, Starlight Glimmer and the maid, Shinning put his leg in front of Cadance and told them to stop. They followed him, hiding behind the nearby corner and he frowned as he watched the area ahead.

"What?" Cadance asked in a low voice.

"Something isn't right…" Too few ponies stood in the square next to the teleporter not to mention that stands were closed and what ponies stood there frowned and talked discreetly to each other. He could read frustration in the air.

"What?" The princess insisted a little louder.

"I think they locked down the teleporter. It could be an ambush." Shinning's instincts were at full steam with the conversation they had earlier. He had accepted the possibility that he might find himself helping his wife, sister and friends against his comrades. Depending on how things went it might cost him his position and the admiration of his ponies, but what kind of knight would he be if didn't stand by his honor as father, husband and brother? They were all taking chances and he was no exception.

"Who are 'they'?" Starlight stared from the corner under his head.

"Ponyville's militia. I can't see them, but they must be looking for us." An open area… Certainly ponies on the roofs, not only inside the facility, he wondered.

"Ponyville has a militia?!" The unicorn looked up at him. "As in… Local militia?"

"For Ponyville's size, the must have a few militiaponies and some ten ponies to capture. Since I haven't seen anypony from the Royal Guard, Princess Celestia probably sent a letter and ordered our detainment. That means they are spread out thin." He talked slowly and in a low voice. "They're inside the building, waiting for us with others likely watching Twilight's friend's homes."

"What do we do?" Cadance asked while Calcite kept the baby close to her, in her hooves instead of in her carriage and Starlight was still trying to parse the idea of Ponyville having a local militia. "Can't we overpower them?"

"I'd rather not take too much of a risk, and there's a lot of open space ahead. Hum..." He sounded distracted, looking around to the sides and up. A pink alicorn in the middle of the street already drew too much attention and ponies were already staring at them. "Stay here."

With that he scurried to the other side of the street that led to the square and vanished behind a building. Cadance called him in a low voice without an answer. The princess stared at the others and for a few minutes nothing happened until they were scared by somepony yelping and a skinny brown earth pony in a leather barding fell from the thatched roof of the nearby building on the other side of the street followed by a musket and Shining Armor, who jumped down after the pony.

He held the pony by the barding. "Start talking!"

The pony shrieked loud enough to draw attention from even more ponies in the area but Shining hoped not the ones inside the facility. "The boss got a letter from Canterlot that told us to arrest you! That is all I know! Pease don't hurt me!"

"How many? Where are the others?" Shinning shook him a little and the terrified pony wailed for a bit before answering.

"We're fifteen, sir! I swear! They went to the homes of the princess' friends!" He said before he broke down crying.

"Get a hold of yourself, pony!" Starlight was more annoyed at the way the militiapony behaved than the fact that he was going to shoot at them. "He didn't even hit you that hard."

"I just wanna go home!" He cried some more.

"Let him go, Shinning." Cadance touched his shoulder with compassion in her expression, concerned over how bad the poor pony seemed to be taking the whole thing. "He looks terrified."

Then a few seconds passed and her expression changed to anger and her wings flared. She grabbed his barding with her magic and shook him violently while Shining grimaced and took a step back. "You were going to shoot at my baby with a musket?! What is wrong with you?!"

The pony shrieked again and covered his face with his hooves. "Those are crystal subduing bullets your highness! I'm just following orders!"

"He's making too much of a racket!" Starlight looked around at the ponies already starting to mass around them. "We better let him go!"

Cadance released him from her magic grasp and yelled angrily at him before he scrambled and galloped away from the teleporter. Meanwhile Shining Armor checked the militiaponie's weapon he now held in his magic and grimaced with his ears back. "It's a scoped Withersworth… But yeesh. This thing looks awful. Who maintains these guys' guns?"

"We got to go!" Starlight told them. "The others will know what happened."

"Yes." Cadance agreed. "Back to the drydock."

"Dammit…" Shining dropped the weapon, ready to follow the others, but Cadance stood there, looking like she was thinking.

"Chrysalis sent the princesses a letter or something." She said with a frown. "We should've known she'd do this. They really are trying to catch us."

"What do we do?" The poor crystal mare began to fear the consequences of what her princess was doing, and her drooped ears and voice made her distress clear.

"Don't worry, Miss Calcite." Shinning reassured her with a friendly smile. "Nothing bad is going to happen to you."

"But what about you, sir?" She asked full of worry. Not only her job could be at risk, but she also loved her prince and princess, and certainly didn't want to see them hurt in any way.

"We'll have to hope that Twilight was right and that the princesses aren't secretly some evil villains."

"The sort that would consort with Queen Chrysalis?" Starlight asked sarcastically.

"Well, I was hoping she wasn't evil anymore…" The Prince rubbed his neck uncomfortably.

Cadance wasn't about to tempt fate or take risks. "Shinning, take Flurry Heart, Calcite and Starlight to the dock. This is getting serious and we'll have to fight. I'll go to the Crystal Empire and grab our things."

"What if they're waiting for you there?" He asked.

"The princesses are more likely to be here, Shining. If they did something, they likely sent a few of their guards. My own guards will help me." Cadance concluded and then teleported away.

Rarity trotted without too much of a hurry. She wouldn't keep her friends waiting but there wasn't any need for her to be seen galloping through town in such an unbecoming way for a lady.

The town was peaceful enough and she greeted several of her acquaintances along the way and soon enough could see her store and home in Ponyville. She hummed a song to herself thinking of the things she must do before leaving for the teleporter. It wasn't such a big list, but she ought to be prepared: she had to account for Opalescence, Sweetie Belle, her appointments. Her parents, her sister and her friends taking care of her stores in Manehatan and Canterlot should be able to deal with everything, though. So, it would be preferable if she presented herself at the teleporter as soon as reasonably possible.

Almost to the door of her house however, she was approached by two ponies in brown leather barding. "Miss Rarity, excuse us."

She looked at them and try as she might, she couldn't understand why in Equestria those ponies wore that leather armor in the middle of Ponyville. Not to mention that she almost gasped in worry: they looked sickly. Their colors looked drained, somehow. One was a light-grey and white pegasus and the other a dull yellow and caramel earth pony. "Hello? May I assist you?"

"We're with the Ponyville Millitia, ma'am. You need to come with us." The pegasus said in an authoritarian way that rubbed her the wrong way, but Rarity wouldn't let first impressions mark her perception of ponies she'd never seen. So, she responded with good humour.

"Oh my! We do have a local militia! I had forgotten entirely!" Oh… The local militia. Silly Rarity! She had completely forgotten they existed and giggled for a while. "I'm terribly sorry. How may I help you, brave militiaponies?"

They didn't find it funny, though, and stared coldly at her. In fact, Rarity noticed her comment offended the ponies and she almost worried for her safety when she received what seemed like a very resentful stare from the earth pony. This sort of thing wasn't normal in Ponyville and while she knew she'd attract attention to herself due to her work, both of them, it was impossible to be liked by everypony. And that pony seemed like somepony that really didn't like her. For some reason she didn't understand. Maybe she didn't give him attention or something someday. Some ponies were like that.

There was also the very likely possibility that Princess Celestia had ordered she and her friends detained. Well, so much for a peaceful journey… And unfortunately, she could not allow herself to make these ponies' work any easier.

"Well, I understand sirs." She finally said, resigning to a colder and more formal tone. "Would you, magnanimously, allow me to see my little sister first, though? I must grab a few personal effects too."

"No, ma'am. You're coming with us now." The earth pony frowned at her, but his companion, the pegasus elbowed at him a little distressed.

"Come on dude. She can't run away and what would she do? She just wants to tell her sister to not worry. Or something. Gee."

His partner didn't look happy about it, but he agreed. "Fine. But be quick, Lady Rarity. We'll be watching you."

With that, she profusely thanked them, and the three ponies made quickly to her home. Once there she opened the door and went inside, closely followed by the two militiaponies. Which irritated the unicorn some more.

"Sweetie Belle! I'm home!" She called and her sister appeared at the top of the stairs while the two ponies in barding entered too. She didn't remember inviting them in, and she felt yet a little more aggravated by that, but she didn't think she had a choice. The pegasus closed the door and the earth pony stared unfriendly at her.

"Hi Rarity!" She chirped but frowned at the sight of the two ponies she'd never seen before. They didn't seem like costumers, that was for sure. "Uh… Is everything okay?"

"Absolutely, dear. These nice ponies are with Ponyville Local Militia and they have requested that I accompany them."

The filly frowned some more. "Ponville has a militia?"

"Yes! Yes, it does, miss." The pegasus had lost his patience. "Can you hurry up, Lady Rarity?"

"Absolutely." She had about lost her patience with these two ponies, but for now resigned to obeying. "Sweetie, fetch the briefcase under my bed, please. The large one, for travels."

"Sure thing, Rarity." With that, the filly disappeared on the second floor and left Rarity with the two militiaponies.

"May I offer you some tea?" Rarity couldn't manage her more friendly voice, and instead her offer came cold and insincere voice accompanied by a cold stare. "Some coffee?"

"No, ma'am. Thank you. We would prefer to leave as soon as possible." The pegasus said, really doing his best to keep his personal feelings about that unicorn out of his mostly professional posture.

"Sure. I certainly understand." The unicorn kept her poise despite feeling a little insulted and more than a little threatened. Now, Rarity wasn't a vengeful pony, but she felt threatened in her own house, with her little sister. Mayor Mare would be hearing a few choice words of hers about these ponies, that was for sure.

After she was herself done with them, actually.

The three remained silent for a few seconds, before the white filly returned and brought down a very expensive and impressive looking black casing, long and with her owner's cutie mark emblazoned in it and also with a shiny silver finish. It had a handle, but both unicorns carried it with their magic.

That thing looked more expensive than the entire equipment for the militia and that fact stung the two ponies more than they cared to admit.

"Thank you very much, Sweetie Belle." She said while she laid the briefcase on the floor, her back to the two ponies and opened it. The two militiaponies stared at her and before the two understood what was happening, the unicorn had produced a pair of exquisitely crafted and adorned, white and indigo wheellock pistols. The next thing they realized was that they were both staring up their long white metal barrels.

"Will you two gentleponies kindly step into that closet, please?" She asked politely, pointing at it with her eyes. "Peacefully, if you will. I am afraid these are loaded with real magic disruption ammunition from our last scuffle with the coeurl. Nasty, nasty monster and I really don't want to know what happens when you shoot a pony with this sort of ammunition."

The two took a second to understand exactly what was happening but obeyed. The earth pony didn't take it kindly though, while he followed the pegasus toward the closet. "What you're doing is a crime ma'am! You're making it worse for yourself."

"Oh, I know, darling." She said sorrowfully while the two walked into the closet. "It's a shame, really. There was a point where we clearly should have stopped, but it lies in the past. I am afraid all we can do now is keep going and hope for the best. Ta ta."

She closed the door and locked it, giving the key to Sweetie Belle who simply stared passively. Then she proceeded to don her white and blue gambeson (with a stylish skirt) and her Element of Generosity jewel. "Sweetie, take Opal and go to dad and mom's home. Take some of her ration, if you will."

"Sure thing, Rarity!" She chirped. "Uh. What about these two?"

"Don't worry yourself with them." She said with a cold stare. "Somepony is bound to miss them eventually. However, I do want you to stop by Twilight's home and tell Lieutenant White Leaf that I didn't like the way these militiaponies imposed and that I'd consider it a personal favor if she took care nopony bothered you or our friends."

The unicorn finished by holstering her pistols in front of her chest and sheathing, on her side, her gleaming rapier. Its white handle adorned with a sapphire for a pommel made it a beautiful weapon. Finally, she covered herself with a blue satin cloak and clasped its brooch in front of her neck. "I should be away a few days and we may or may not end up dethroning Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Do be careful. These things tend to be quite dramatic."

"Uh… Sure." Her little sister struggled a bit to understand, lacking context.

And with that, Rarity departed, leaving the briefcase and the small unicorn sitting next to the closet's door. "So… Uh… I gotta go. You know, do what Rarity told me to. See you guys later."

Hurrying away, the filly didn't hear the angry complaints from the other side of the door.

Twilight walked next to Spike and quickly made it to her palace. The wooden doors were open as she ordered they should be (another thing she had learned from Celestia, even if she didn't really 'do' administration). However, both her guards were missing from their post by the door.

It wasn't a big deal. They, most likely were helping one of her staff with something. She turned to Spike. "Go to the school and see if they need anything. It's vacations so there shouldn't even be anypony there. Then meet me here. I'll grab my barding and weapons, or Shinning won't stop complaining the whole travel."

"Sure thing." He said excitedly and went off while Twilight entered her home.

Once inside, she quickly crossed the atrium and made her way to the audience chamber. She wasn't home, so it, obviously had closed doors. What bothered her was that she still had that weird and insistent feeling that something was wrong, but now it practically screamed at her that she was in danger. Or that she should be careful. Or something of the sort. It was too vague and all that feeling managed to do was annoy her. She grunted at herself… Something less vague might be have been useful.

Opening the doors to the audience chamber she saw something big, white and golden. The sound she made defied classification. It was a combination of a squeak, a 'meep' and a panicked scream while she closed the door as fast as she could.

"Twilight! Wait!" She heard Celestia's amused voice call to her from the other side of the door.

Wait? No. She galloped and did it as fast as she could without slamming into things steering towards the library. So fast she almost couldn't open the door in time for her to go through it. In there the large room was empty of ponies except for her librarian who stared confused at her. Hiding behind a bookstand the princess grimaced and gestured with a hoof for her to leave.

The unicorn did so, as naturally as possible and closed the doors behind her only for Twilight to hear her talking to Princess Celestia through the closed doors. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she figured the Miss Goodread was trying to stall her old mentor.

Almost in a panic Twilight scurried to the deepest place in the library and tried to keep an eye on the doors while also trying to think of a way out. She couldn't teleport: Princess Celestia would track her spell and in open ground she would catch up to her. If she stayed The Princess would eventually find her. If she tried to run, she would grab her with magic. Fly out a window, she'd teleport and then grab her with magic. The library wasn't big enough for her to keep sneaking around.

Fight her? Twilight almost laughed out sarcastically at the idea of fighting Princess Celestia head on. And on her library.

Finally, If Celestia caught her she'd make Twilight stop her investigation, and while she didn't really want to think about it there were all sort of unpleasant ideas in her head about how she might do that.

She caught herself breathing too shortly and too fast already filling her head with even more unpleasant images of what an evil Princess Celestia could do with her and that she wouldn't even remember. She needed to calm herself with her breathing exercises. Her anxiety wouldn't help so she did her best to calm her nerves and remember the actual Princess Celestia she knew. And as soon as she could think straight again, she quickly began removing the pieces of her royal regalia while staring at the doors past three rows of bookcases.

The plan was to sneak past her and vanish out the doors. Without a teleportation the chances that Celestia would pick her track would be more negotiable.

When the doors opened slowly, shinning with golden light of her magical aura Twilight hid again, carefully peeking by the corner to see the open doors with Princess Celestia walking in, followed by the dark brown alicorn that followed her everywhere this past year.

"Ponyfeathers… She brought him too!" She whispered to herself and looked again at the pair. While Princess Celestia looked her typical self he had a brown saddle-arabian blanket on his back and a horn adornment in two pieces and was all trussed up in gold with a ceremonial peytral and a gold fishnet on his mane, like a saddle-arabian escort. Gee… At least, he was not armed or wearing real barding, which was good. It meant they weren't expecting a fight.

Not that Princess Celestia needed weapons to fight… But…

"Twilight, why are you hiding from me?" Celestia asked looking around by the door. "You're confused. We should sit down and talk over a cup of tea."

Then she gestured Chocolate Velvet to stand by the door and slowly walked towards Twilight. Thinking fast she scurried to one of the room's corners. She couldn't see them anymore, though she could sense all the magic that whirled around Celestia, and she was still moving towards where Twilight was drawn by the homing magic in her regalia.

"Please, talk to me, Twilight. I'm still the Celestia you know. Despite what you may be thinking because of all the things you found." It hurt her heart listening to the princess talking like that… She sounded hurt that Twilight wouldn't trust her, but she couldn't afford to trust her. She wouldn't bet all the things that could go wrong on anypony's feelings. At least before she had some more answers. Twilight could always make up to the princess if she was wrong, but if she was right…

"Twilight, please!" Celestia pleaded again. "I promise you all will make sense with a short talk."

Then, another voice sounded in the library, a bit gruff though calm and stoic. "Princess. One of the local militiaponies has found Prince Armor and Princess Cadenza."

The beacon of magical energy that she was shifted and started going towards the door again. "Where?"

"The teleporter." Twilight recognized this voice. It belonged to Lieutenant Crucible Wings, trainer and executive officer of the Princess' personal guard. "Said Princess Cadenza and Prince Armor violently assaulted him, along with Twiligth's friend and that he fought valiantly, but they escaped him. Said he wants compensation."

"Is that so? I'll talk to him." The princess said and Twilight could hear her hoofsteps walking towards the door trailing her magic. "Don't hurt her, Chocolate."

Pfft… As if he could… Twilight quietly giggled to herself. Things had changed and a few seconds after she moved to the corner of the bookcase line closest to the reading tables so that she could see him slowly closing the door with his amber telekinetic magic.

"So, how's the knight thing going for you?" She asked playfully. "Slayed many a monster in the princesses' bedrooms?"

His ears immediately perked up and he looked her way, but he stayed by the door and laughed sarcastically. "You should know that I captured a shockroach on Princess Celestia's bedroom!"

"You captured it?" She rose an eyebrow, despite him not being able to see it.

"She… Didn't want me to kill it…" He said with droopy ears. "Asked me to release it in the garden."

"Oh… Hum…" She let escape an awkward laugh. "That's… Nice… Sparing the life of such a small and humble creature is very knightly… I'm sure it's worth a few points with the Equestrian Chivalric Society."

He laughed sarcastically again. "Is this the sort of thing you teach in your school, Twilight? How about you surrender, and we can enjoy a nice cupcake after Celestia tans your hide?"

"Sorry, Chocolate… I can't do that. Don't you want to know the truth, though?" She said. Maybe there was a chance he'd change to her side. She knew that he liked Celestia and Luna, but she also knew that he was curious about anything around them. A hidden past could be something too tempting for him. Specially if she played it right. "I mean… Princess Celestia and Princess Luna seem to have done something in the past and they have tried to hide it. Something big, related to the unicorns and the sun. What about whatever happened with that griffon Emperor, Grigor?"

"Twilight, I don't care. She told me what you're doing, and I honestly don't care." He said, slowly walking towards the bookcase he could hear her voice coming from. "I'm loyal to Princess Celestia because I don't think that she'd do something wrong. And if she did, she certainly had very good reasons. Luna too."

She hummed to herself, moving away from the corner. "I understand. Funny, though… You sound a bit like me… But what if she tricked you? Tricked us?"

"It's surreal to hear this coming from you, Twilight. What? Do you think that Celestia and Luna are secretly evil, or something?" His head came around the corner and they stared at each other.

"Actually…" Twilight showed a smug smile. "I'm wondering if you already learned how to teleport."

In an instant the princess executed the spell inside her head, her magic made it a reality and she was on the other side of the door promptly closing and locking it. Inside the library he panicked, and his hooves clopped on the floor then banged at the door. He screamed angrily and banged some more. "Open the door, Twilight! I mean it! I don't want to blow up your house!"

"Uh-hu… Quiz on teleportation magic once this is all over, mister." She said with a giggle and started walking away from the door.

He screamed in frustration again, banging on the door, but she knew he would be fine. She should hurry, though. It wouldn't be too long before he realized he can open the windows and fly out. Even with his size.

Quickly now, she must gather her barding, her weapons and her Element of Magic diadem. Not only would they make Shining easier to bear, but they would certainly be useful in a hostile situation and it seemed that things had, indeed gone wrong.

Like they always did…

She really needed to hurry. While she could deal with any of her guards she'd left behind, Twilight would rather not try her luck against Princess Celestia. She'd rather survive this whole mess, and hopefully remain her friend.

Pushing those thoughts out of her head she started towards her armory in the basement. Careful before every corner that she wouldn't be ambushed by any Royal Guards Celestia might have left behind. But the way to the armory was short and uneventful. Through the halls, down the stairs and past a few corridors and she found herself staring at the double doors of the armory. She expected to see at least a few of Celestia's guards making sure her own guards didn't try anything. With a touch of annoyance, she realized that she'd like to know why her guards weren't trying to protect her.

Finally, opening the doors to her armory, she found her guards in there. All two of them… Lieutenant White Leaf and Sargent Raspberry Pancakes. One a white and green unicorn female and the other a plum and pink earth pony female, both wearing her guard's purple enchanted armor.

"What the hay are you two doing here?" Twilight did her best not to yell.

"Uh… We've been asked to wait here while Princess Celestia talked to you." White Leaf said frowning a little.

The purple princess facehoofed. "Did you notice that Princess Celestia is trying to apprehend me? You're supposed to protect me!"

"From Princess Celestia?" White Leaf raised an eyebrow, and Twilight had to admit it did sound weird. But still… "What is going on?!"

With a sigh Twilight quickly summated the relevant events and conclusions to them while she retrieved her spare set of royal jewelry and wore them.

"Whoa… That is kinda big." Raspberry said. "What do you want us to do, Princess?"

"I don't know…" Twilight rubbed her forehead. "I'm afraid the girls could be in trouble."

"We'll escort you back to the airship." White Leaf said decidedly, and the other nodded. "Then we'll leave you with the crew and look for the others."

"Hey! It's not like I can't fight and help my friends!" The princess felt a bit offended her guard would think her defenseless.

"Sure, princess…" White Leaf raised an eyebrow again. "But you ought to defend the airship. I'm not entirely sure the crewponies can do that without you. Especially if Princess Celestia is running around."

"Oh. Right." Twilight acquiesced, and then giggled uncomfortably while she reached to an upper shelf and retrieved her black and purple briefcase, adorned with her cutie mark.


	8. The Animus Imperative

Away from the commotion, in a grassy field crossed by a small stream of water some distance from Ponyville, Princess Cadance could mentally prepare for the task ahead.

Teleportation magic was difficult and if Princess Celestia was around she would notice her. In fact, Cadance could feel her presence around. She wasn't close enough to exactly pinpoint where she was, but she definitively was within Ponyville. Probably looking for Twilight and it almost offended Cadance that she didn't try to apprehend her. Maybe the other princess thought that Twilight would be an easier target, or something. She didn't know… She was distracting herself and should worry about not screwing up her teleportation to the Crystal Empire right now.

While her magical reflexes should keep her from teleporting into the terrain or an object and she knew the area well enough to avoid any danger, there was still the problem that teleportation magic was complex and required a monumental amount of energy to succeed. If she failed all that power would blow on her face and her horn would explode with an amount of spectacle relative to the amount of recruited magical energy. Trying to teleport that far it would be weeks before she could feel comfortable enough to cast anything more complex than a telekinetic grasp.

Considering the way their little adventure was going the risk of her being stuck in a bed with a blown horn was prohibitive.

Still, she had to do it. Things were getting serious, she had no time to travel by non-magical means, and Twilight wasn't experienced enough to deal with the potential snowball this whole mess could become.

She thought back to past days when Princess Celestia taught her magic. The problem with teleportation magic (almost all magic) is the distance. That much was obvious and the study of such magic was governed by a thaumatological equation: energy required equals Blink's Constant multiplied by mass divided by two, multiplied by the distance to the power of two, all multiplied by magical attrition, divided by the added magical coefficient of initial and final locations.

Not only that, but all those variables must be included in the final formula that should be cast properly, without interruption. She grunted. No wonder ponies invented the teleporters. This thing was like playing the piano, without a sheet and correcting the song for the taste of the listener, depending on the place you're playing it!

It was possible that she simply couldn't do it, but all her life she's been urged to try. To reach out and to accomplish her goals. First by her matron in the orphanage, then by Princess Celestia, by her friends, and finally, by Shining Armor and even her little baby.

Finally convinced she decided that her instincts would guide her. They always did. She quickly ran the calculations in her head and remembered the details of her destination, took note of the place she stood and how it felt to her magical senses.

She took a deep breath and her horn ignited with magic, coming alive inside her head with a melody like an anthem for a beloved, distant place: her brain played the magical notes that channeled magic towards her will. She could feel it flowing in her whole body and in the air around her, a feeling that can only be described as anticipation. The world seemed brighter. More real. The magic which permeated all made itself evident, shining as though things had a life of their own. It responded to her with a melody of its own. Her mental melody reached a crescendo like an uncontainable euphoria and, in her mind's eye two coordinates approached each other exponentially faster. Her horn burned with raw power until finally a threshold was broken. For a mere instant, the spatial component of the space-time mesh of the world bent to her will and distances meant nothing to her.

The world returned to normal around her and reality conformed to the fact that the pink alicorn now stood in another location. Air moved in where she was before and submitted to the might of her magic where she stood, destroyed and recombined in ozone with a single flash and bang.

The simple connection she felt to everything was exhilarating for a few seconds before magic returned to normal. It did so in the same way molecules reorganized, and the violation of relativity was forgotten without hard feelings from the magical reality of her world. That was why magic existed, after all. To break from the mundane and to reach for the outstanding. And that was how she felt. Most importantly, the vast majority of ponies simply couldn't do it: what she had just done was a privilege of few.

It was so different from artificial magic too... Her whole body tingled while the euphoria washed over, past the surge of magic, and now everything returned to normal. Her horn was a bit sore and a small headache threatened. It was an effort. But now she couldn't worry about that. She was before the entrance to the Crystal Empire, and the cold air reminded her of that.

Suddenly she became very aware of the magic that permeated her home. It was like the city welcomed her, but there was something wrong. That was something Cadance wasn't entirely familiar with, but she had experienced it a few times before, so she knew what was it that she felt. It was the innate magic of her realm, warning her: someone was there, uninvited by her. Intruding upon her realm.

It was familiar too. It was the powerful and ancient magic that washed over her every evening when day changed to night, and right there in the cold of the Crystal Empire, it made her tremble a little. Suddenly, her hurt feelings of the princesses not hunting her were a happy memory and the thought of falling on Luna's ill side made her tremble more than the cold did.

She had hoped the Night Princess would be at Ponyville and that her magic was simply masked by Celestia's, but she was instead waiting for her in her home. The princess frowned a little, cursed her stupidity, and prepared for a possible conflict, quickly recalling all the defensive spells she would need and prepared to cast them, despite her sore horn.

Her first reaction included all sorts of concealing spells, and she thought of letting go of her royal regalia, but then grunted at herself... She probably lighted up like fireworks when she arrived, and Luna certainly knew she was there. All she could do now was prepare for when Luna teleported from Tartarus knew where and attacked.

But it never happened and Cadance realized that all Luna had to do was wait for Cadance at her own palace, the only place she would have anything to do upon arriving because, certainly Luna already had made sure nopony would be in condition to help Cadance. The pink alicorn hadn't felt that stupid in quite some time, walking right into a trap like that.

All she could really do was hope her personal guards had remembered all the times they trained for an emergency because Cadance was sure that her Royal Guards were already done for under Luna's command.

That and spring the trap, hoping to come up on top. Fortunately, it seemed like she had time to prepare since Luna wasn't coming after her.

Her royal regalia contained a plethora of defensive and supporting enchantments meant to protect her from any assailants, even if she would not be aware of them, and also meant to assist her if she needed to actively defend herself. These include different kinds of warding enchantments such as different kinds of magical shields for starters, and if something was to happen, she should be ready for it. The problem was that Luna had one set like hers, that she must have personalized to her tastes.

For now, though, she would try to mask her presence and enter the city in the most secretive way possible while keeping her regalia. That should prove enough of a challenge and she may have to rely on luck but in the end, she just hoped she wouldn't have to fight Luna. At least until she got her barding and weapons.

Things had barely started, and Grape Donut was already having second thoughts about this whole idea of apprehending the Princess and her friends. And sister-in-law… Another Princess. Also, her brother, his technical superior. What a mess.

Maybe, to be very honest the only real reason he had agreed to getting involved was because that would keep Semolina's mouth shut. Therefore, he felt cheated as he had agreed to capturing the Princess and her friends, but Semolina still wouldn't shut her mouth.

"Well, of course you would come here. It's not like you could even try to catch somepony like Rainbow Dash anyway. Well, it's not like you could keep up to Pinkie Pie either." She said, walking besides him, by the small houses of Ponyville. "You better hope that Princess Celestia's guards will catch those ponies because you and that bunch of losers you call militiaponies couldn't catch a cold to save your lives. And it's all your fault, you know? You're their boss."

Inside his head, the Lord Protector of Ponyville reminded himself to be mature and just let her talk. As much as he disliked it, he couldn't say that she was wrong. There was also the fact that he was having trouble breathing inside his barding, but he liked to think that he would still not have made a scene if he could walk and talk at the same time.

Fortunately, Sugarcube Corner wasn't very far from the militia headquarters and they soon arrived. Summoning up his favorite comic series from his childhood, he kicked the door open, and spoke with his most serious and commanding tone. "Pinkie Pie. Come quietly, or there will be trouble."

That earned him surprised and curious stares from all the costumers: harmless fillies and colts enjoying ice creams and all sorts of sweets while his companion rolled her eyes behind him. Miss Cake greeted him with a friendly smile and a waving hoof from behind the counter. "Oh. Hello, Grape Donut! Pinkie isn't here, but I have your daily order ready."

"Oh! Great!" He grinned excitedly, but immediately caught himself and shook his head, back to his serious demeanor. "I mean… That is good, ma'am, but I need to talk to her. Official business."

"Official business?" Miss Cake recoiled, a little surprised. "What kind of business? What is Pinkie involved in?"

"Princess Celestia has requested that we apprehend Princess Twilight Sparkle and all of her friends." He said. "Which includes Pinkie Pie."

The mare stared at him with nothing but confusion in her face. "Why would she ask you to do that?"

He deadpanned. "We're the local militia… It's our job to arrest ponies."

"Oooh." She seemed surprised. A little too much for Grape's tastes. "That is right. Ponyville does have a militia force… I had forgotten. I'm sorry… Well, Pinkie isn't here."

"Did she say where she would go?" He still kept his poise professional. It was easy for him because his callousness towards ponyvillians simply not knowing he even existed would require additional energy. And he could feel Semolina judging him from behind.

"Pinkie said she'd go to the teleporter to meet her friends and that she would be away a few days. But I couldn't say where exactly they'll be going."

"I see…" He rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"What now, Shirelock?" His wife reminded him that he hated his life. "You already have some of your losers waiting for them in there. Are you going to pretend they're going to do their job right this time?"

Miss Cake stared at one pony and then at the other, smiling awkwardly, doing her best to pretend she didn't feel somewhat distressed at the way she talked to him.

"I suppose we should go to the teleporter and make sure that the others have things under control. Thank you, Miss Cake." He said, finally and turned to leave followed by his wife.

Then he came back inside, picked up the box with the donuts and left the bakery again, followed by his wife. She stared hard at him. "You couldn't leave those things there, could you?"

He stared back at her, both walking casually while he had the box on his back. "I don't see the benefit of leaving behind perfectly fine donuts."

"You are pathetic." She said with her most venomous stare.

'And you're a bitch', he thought, while he also couldn't see how some ponies could marry more than one mate, but he thought it a better idea not to say anything. At least the donuts would be delicious, and he could distract himself thinking about them while she kept on telling him all the ways she thought him a loser. Surrounded by losers, that would never be anything in his life, like all the other losers he had surrounded himself with.

Amid her onslaught, he decided that it would be better if he, indeed went to the teleporter. Despite Semolina's opinion, that was where they stood the biggest chance of capturing the princesses and their friends.

But he'd leave the donuts sitting safely in his desk first.

Cadance quickly skipped across the streets of her town, sneaking from corner to corner like a fugitive. She hated it and thanked Harmony her subjects were tucked away inside their homes, no doubt following martial law summoned by Luna.

Weirdly enough, she hadn't seen any of the town's local militia, or the Royal Guard, much less her own personal guards. It was odd. If ponies had been directed to stay inside, there ought to be patrols.

Nevertheless, she pushed on towards the center of the town and her palace and her mind wandered while she carefully watched the streets and windows for patrols or observers.

She had grown used to the cold in the Crystal Empire. Some 'shrink ponies' said that the 'feel-good magic' from the Crystal Heart helped a lot with that, as ponies weren't supposed to live in the cold because they became sad, or something like that, or even away from the sun. They had a much lower incidence of sunlight in the Crystal Empire and that was also something that supposedly made ponies sad.

It was a bit strange that ponies would come to a place like that to begin with, considering they fled from the wendigos and their winter. There was some study Twilight had once shared with her that said crystal ponies may have changed to live in the cold: some smart ponies had figured out though archeological studies that they migrated from Central Equestria some thousands of years ago to settle in and as the time went on, their magic adapted to the cold, making them 'crystal-y' and cold-resistant.

More importantly, they were the ones that brought the Crystal Heart, but where it had come from was a big mystery and the reason ponies moved in was forgotten.

Peeking into a narrow alley it seemed to Cadance that as of lately everything happened thousands of years ago and was a mystery. How did nopony notice these things before?

Sneaking between the crystal-y homes of her subjects these thoughts did little to improve on Cadance's mood. The more she thought about the whole mess she had uncovered with that stupid letter the more she convinced herself that it should be Luna and Celestia that were in trouble, not her, and that she ought to be pressing Luna for some answers rather than hiding from her.

She cringed a little though. In reality, if she tried that, she'd probably end up locked in a cell with more than a few singed feathers. While Cadance's combat expertise lent itself to fighting monsters and the occasional evil overlord, Princess Luna supposedly had fought in wars. More than that… Luna had killed ponies. Intentionally.

The thought of fighting someone until they couldn't anymore and then intentionally taking their lives was a foreign concept to Cadance.

She thought back to Shining's words in Chrysalis' chambers about how they had never been actually shot at or attacked with murderous intent. She tried to think of Princess Luna, the awkward princess who could barely stand sitting on her own throne and have everypony staring at her actually fighting somepony to the death.

Cadance didn't know for sure, but she was pretty convinced by reading historical accounts and martial manuals that one simply didn't fight in an open combat in the same way they fought in a duel, like their sparring sessions.

Luna certainly fought in the First Griffon War, but ponies don't like wars and they did a poor job of recording the details of the battles. At best, what survived the passage of time were the general happenings of the war, such as specific sieges and battles, but with little to no detail. Not a single one about The Sisters fighting in the war, too… Odd, at best; discrepant, at the least.

Cadance frowned… Or maybe the Sisters pushed it all under the rugs too.

Then voices caught her attention and she quickly hid behind the next corner. She could see the street where three thestral members of Luna's Royal guard stood with three of the creepy tall changelings. They stood by a barricade of sandbags that closed most of the street.

The three thestrals wore Lunar Royal Guard barding and had magic shock batons strapped to their armors, while one of them had a squad leader insignia, Luna's cutie mark and the two-and-three chevron insignia, on his shoulder. The changelings wore their own armor and had their double-bladed swords secured on their sides. It was a bit odd that they had no rank markings. Maybe they did so in a different way Cadance wasn't aware.

"Changelings… Just great…" Cadance murmured angrily to herself though, before making sure she remained hidden behind the corner and that they hadn't seen her, before peeking out again.

One of the changelings had the attention of the others while he showed them his right forward hoof which looked limp while he held it from the ground.

"Blimey. There it goes again. It's all tingly and limp." He even let it sway a little from side to side to make a point while another changeling stared at it.

"You should get that looked at, mate." The second one said grumply.

"No. Really?" The limp one answered sarcastically. "Any more brilliant advice?"

Cadance just stared at their whole interaction. It was like staring at a train wreck… You know it is terrible, but you can't tear your eyes from it.

"Well, he's right." The leading thestral intervened. "It doesn't look like you're fit for duty."

The third changeling, a female, trotted next to them. "Well, you better not. If they notice there's something wrong with you, the eggmaidens will put you down and you'll be recycled!"

"Queen almighty!" The second changeling looked at her. "You're still going on about that hogwash? How would that even work? You'd think they'd cut you up and serve to the Queen in a platter with bloody side of lettuce and sliced tomatoes!"

"Not me!" The female took a step back and reached for something inside the chest of her barding, producing a lock of green hair bond together by a wire. "Mother's protecting me!"

The thestral stared confusingly. "Is that… Is that from Chrysalis' mane?"

"It absolutely is!" She held it triumphantly in her magical telekinesis. "It holds the Queen's magic! She gave it to me!"

"You mean you cut it while she slept, and King Thorax shrieked like a kindergartener when he woke up and saw you holding a pair of scissors next to them…" The other changeling still looked grumpy, and now bored.

"Well, she could have stopped me…" She deflated a little, only to sound grandiose again. "But didn't! She just went back to sleep! So, she completely gave it to me!"

"You're madder than a sack of ferrets." The grumpy changeling complained while the female still showed the others her prize.

"There ain't one of us that ain't properly fucked, mate." The limp one said a little distressed with his still unmoving hoof. "What, with you and your conked humor."

"Seriously…" The grumpy one stared. "Get one of the docs to see that."

"Ah, it will be back to normal right quick."

"Well, I think that having a lock of the queen's mane is pretty normal" Said one of the thestrals. And then he proceeded to bring out a small glass vial from his saddlebag. Inside, it held a couple of blue, fluffy, feathers.

The others stared at it, but it was the thestral squad leader that had his mouth agape in shock. "Are those… What in the actual… Are those Princess Luna's down feathers?"

"They are my lucky charm!" The owner said excitedly. "And they smell like blueberries!"

"Soldier, that is legit messed up." The lead said with a wrinkled muzzle. "I'll have you appointed with the shrink as soon as this mission is over."

Finally, the third thestral, the one that was actually paying attention to the street spoke in a calm voice. "Princess Luna hates this sort of thing. She's gonna make you swallow that thing if she catches you with it."

With that the thestral stared sadly at his charm, but the female changeling came up to him and happily put a leg over his armored back. "Leave the bloke alone! You're all just jealous you don't have their protection!"

Then she smiled at him. "Say, how 'bout we date after our shift is over?"

While the squad leader stared at the pair, with mild amusement at his blushing face, and the limp changeling stared angrily at his heel as though he could command it to work properly already, the others looked bored. Cadance, while she thought that the couple was somewhat cute, tried to reassure herself that none of her guards would harvest her feathers from her bedding, and she also worried for these changelings. Something about them still didn't seem quite… Okay.

She was about to double back and leave them, taking another path, when the bored thestral perked his ears.

"Heads up guys! Contact!"

All six of them stared at an approaching crystal pony. Green and rosé, he pulled a cart hitched to him. It was covered with a blue cloth and whatever he was carrying inside tinkled like glass at every unevenness of the road. The princess recognized the pony, he was dating one of her own personal guards.

The pony kept walking towards them, despite looking a little insecure and Cadance felt he could be in danger, so she decided she'd watch over him until they let him go.

As he approached, one of the thestrals flared his leathery black wings and raised a hoof. "Greetings citizen. You have to stop."

"Uh…" The pony hesitated and trembled a little. "Hi… I… Uh…"

"It's alright, sir." The thestral leader tried to calm the pony down with a relaxed voice and demeanor. "Nopony is going to hurt you, but you shouldn't be out. Also step away from the cart, please."

With that the other two thestrals unhitched and herded the pony away from the cart while the female changeling approached it, doing her best to sound cheerful and friendly while she lifted the cloth over it.

"Hello there!" She told him before looking inside. "It's just a bunch of bottles." She said, letting go of the cloth and turning to the crystal pony. "What's in the bottles, mate?"

"It's a special drink!" The pony said too quickly for their tastes, but their leader figured he was just nervous. "It… I went to the distillery. And I was just coming back."

"Well, there is a curfew, sir. Under Princess Luna's authority." Another thestral, the one that had the charm stood next to his superior. "You're not supposed to get out of your house unless it's an emergency."

"Well…" The pony looked slightly offended and frowned. "This is an emergency! This stuff is done, and I had to store it! I mean… I was in the distillery, not at home."

The lunar Royal Guard sergeant wasn't amused, but Cadance, in her hiding place, smiled broadly. "Sir, this is not an emergency, under the present circumstances. I'll kindly ask that you leave your cart here and let one of us escort you home."

"What?!" The pony reeled in shock. "I can't leave this here!"

The thestral was beginning to lose his patience. "I'm sorry sir, but you don't have a choice."

"No, no! You don't understand!" The crystal pony shrieked and waved his hooves frantically before letting pure, unadultered bliss into his voice. "It is a malt made from genuine mountain ice and moonrye! It's the purest water, combined with the purest moonlight absorbed by the wild iced rye that grows at the base of the Everwinter Mountain! You have no idea how valuable this is! The rye only grows once per year and matures from absorbing moonlight, exactly on the longest night: Nightmare Night!"

The changelings were completely lost, but the ponies froze. He couldn't be talking about… IT!

The pony made a serious expression. "I harvest it and then climb the mountain during the day so that I can get the best light from the moon. Then I spend months at the peak, slowly malting and mashing the rye, showering it in moonlight every night until it is ready to be cooked, distilled and bottled."

Finally, he grinned radiantly. "It only lasts for three days and is so strong it was forbidden for one thousand years and the only one who can down a whole glass, not a bottle, mind you, of it is the moon princess herself. This, kind gentleponies and changelings, is legitimate Everwinter Moonshine!"

The squad leader's eyes almost jumped out of his skull. That thing was legendary. Nopony even knew where it was made. Until then…

"Ooooh!" The thestral next to his commander grinned. "I heard of it! They say you can hear Nightmare Moon howling when you drink it."

"Actually, it's a few seconds after, sir." The crystal pony corrected him with a raised hoof. "It needs to get to your head, you know!"

"Everypony's heard of it!" The previously bored thestral was now as excited as the rest of them.

The sergeant had heard of it too, of course. That thing was so rare it's said that it's sold out in the same day it's put on the only store that sells it, a stand in the Crystal Empire's market. That thing really was legendary, even more so between the Lunar Royal Guards, with their love to anything related to the Moon Princess. But also, whose salary couldn't reasonably afford one tenth of one single bottle.

"That sounds dynamite!" The cheery changeling said next to the cart. "I want one!"

"Well, this thing is confiscated property." The leader finally said, forcing his mind into professional mode, which drew disappointed looks from his subordinates and the weird changeling. The grumpy one still looked grumpy and the third one was still worried about his hoof and uninterested. "It will be returned to you as soon as the whole situation is resolved, sir."

"But… But!" His subordinate indecorously grabbed his barding, frantically shaking him. "It's gonna go bad!"

"Well…" The green crystal pony started. "I'm sure nopony is going to mind if I give you guys a bottle…"

"Are you trying to bribe us?" The leader asked with a hint of anger while he adjusted his helmet and stared daggers at the crystal pony.

"No!" The crystal pony promptly defended himself. "It's just that… It really will go bad. So, you guys, at least, could have one. On the house… You are Lunar Guards, after all. You guys gotta taste this! Not to mention, Princess Luna always gets one gift bottle ever since her return, anyways. You can take another to her."

"Alright. Fine!" The squad leader finally agreed to the delight of his subordinates and the excited changeling. "Only one bottle."

Squeeing excitedly, the changeling lifted the cloth again and grabbed one of the bottles from under it and then stared curiously at it. It was filled with lightly shinny clear liquid and the bottle itself was covered in a thin sheet of ice. Additionally, it didn't have a cork or cap. It was simply a closed glass bottle with a neck next to the rounded top.

"Ooooh. How do you open this thing?" She asked, mystified by it. "Do I need to break it? Snap the top?"

"Yep. That is it!" The crystal pony said. "It's kinda like sabering a champagne, though. Gotta do it properly. Shake it some and then tap it above the neck on a surface."

Like a child with a new toy, the changeling did exactly that while the others watched and the drink became a fizzling white mixture, like the thing contained a blizzard contained inside. And, as soon as the thing so much as tapped the edge of the cart, it exploded with the howl of a windy blizzard and chilling white powder showered in every direction, covering the present ponies and changelings, as well as the whole street in a fine sheet of shinny white.

They screamed and tried to cover their faces, only to realize they couldn't move… The thing literally crystalized around them, entombing them from the neck down in a chunk of cold ice. Partly distressed, partly angry, and also worried, the squad leader looked around for the crystal pony only to find him casually brushing the sparkly powder from his crystal coat and smiling triumphantly.

"It also…" The pony said grinning. "Is a powerful 'Diamond Dust' spell if you shake it too much."

"You dodgy bugger!" The female changeling yelled angrily and charged up her horn with green changeling magic, ready to zap him into oblivion when she heard a sharp female voice ordering her to stop.

"Quit it, cockroach." On top the nearby homes, the ceilings were littered with ponies from all tribes, wearing pastel colored robes and armed with bows. A dozen crystallized metal arrows pointed down at them, while one particular unicorn pony with a creamy white coat and blonde mane pointed one arrow at her. "We'll turn your face into a porcupine."

The changeling shrieked and the aura around her horn collapsed. If she could, she would have dropped to the ground and covered her head. "Please don't! I don't want to die virgin!"

The pony stared weirdly at the changeling and lowered her bow, and her friend next to her shrugged and did the same. The situation under control the ponies got on their four legs, with their bows secured on their backs, and dropped to the street level.

"Great job, Verdite!" The milky white mare cheered, bumping her hoof with his.

It was in that moment that Cadance decided she should show herself, and did so walking out of her hiding place, smiling as her ponies recognized her, starting with an aquamarine crystal pony that drew attention to her.

"Great job, everypony!" The princess greeted them, and all the robed ponies cheered happily while their leader, the white unicorn, bowed before the princess. "Great job Milky White!"

"Princess Cadance! I'm so glad you're alright!" She said with a huge smile, grabbing Cadance's leg. "We didn't know if something had happened and the dummies in the Royal Guard did everything Princess Luna told them! So, we decided to capture a few of them to get some answers. These changelings drew our attention… They seem to have more personality than the others."

Cadance stared at he the group and one of the changelings perked his ears. "Good news guys! My hoof is working again! Oh… Wait… It's numb because of the cold now. Nevermind."

"Bloody moron…" The grumpy one said to himself.

Cadance stared at her personal guard for a second and then walked towards their captives, stopping before the Royal Guard sergeant who stared stoically at them.

"Hello?" She tried.

"My name is Zephir Wings." He said in such a completely robotic tone Cadance might've thought she was talking to a golem. "Staff Sergeant with the Lunar Branch of the Royal Guard. Eighty five years. Identification zero, forty-seven."

Cadance recoiled a step with a weirded out expression and her companion facehoofed. "She just wants to know if you're hurt, you bozo."

"I'm not hurt, princess. Just my pride" He said, talking like a normal pony again.

"You're supposed to tell me you mission, too." Cadance said.

"That is if I fear for my well-being or that of my squadmates, Princess." The pony soldier replied stoically.

"Hello?" Cadance insisted. "I get laid with your boss."

The pony stared at her for a second. "Fair point Princess."

"Don't tell her mate!" The changeling with the lame hoof struggled in his ice casing. "We were made to endure yak musical torture! She's nothing to us! Nothing!"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" The third thestral cried. "This bunch of idiots here present was supposed to inform the Princess if you showed up. We were supposed to guard this place and these nutjobs were supposed to alert the queen when you showed up. Can you take me in now, please? My balls are freezing!"

Cadance nodded to her white companion, who hoofed at the ground a couple of times. "C'mon ladies! Let's get them ready to move. A patrol is bound to show up eventually anyway."

With that, ponies quickly started chipping at the base of the ice mounds with ice picks and Cadance went to the female changeling. She smiled friendly at her, despite how uncomfortable the changeling looked. "Hi?"

"Hum… Hi…" The big changeling said. She didn't seem so threatening as they were in the hive a few days ago. This one looked like she would be more at place in a… Cadance didn't know. There was something deeply disconcerting about this changeling, despite her looking so similar to the "commander" they met in the Rock. This one too seemed formidable, but her eyes were so unsettling. Maybe it's because she's scared she was captured?

She meant to talk to the changeling, but Milky was right… A patrol was bound to show up soon, and that was if these guys weren't supposed to report periodically. Vanishing quickly was probably a good idea.

Luna walked briskly next to Chrysalis and they both could hear the angry shouting in the next room.

"I've lost count of how many times I've told them not to do this." The queen complained, more to herself than to Luna, though the princess paid attention.

Cadance's palace was too big in Luna's opinion. It's crystal walls created too much of a racket every time somepony spoke too loudly and they reflected too much of the bright light that was everywhere because of the white clouds and snow that seemed perpetual. But if Cadance liked it, she was fine with it.

She could also remember Celestia saying it had an important function, when she sent off the ponies to colonize this place, but she couldn't remember. She was too young at the time and the shouting was driving her to anger.

Chrysalis' magic opened the door and they were greeted by the sight of one of the changeling queen's Praetorians laying in a couch with a pillow over her head and her superior shouting at her like she was an angry mother. Meanwhile, the changeling head doctor used her magic to examine the laying soldier, covering her in its glow.

"Brilliant! Our first operation outside the Rock and you're acting up like a bloody child! You're embarrassing me in front of the Queen!" The angry officer yelled at the other, much to the doctor's annoyance.

"Will you stop yelling at her? It's not helping and it's not her fault!" She stared with hard eyes and flat ears at the other, who huffed angrily and looked the other way. Where she suddenly was scared at the sight of the open doors and the queen, followed by the princess.

"How many times do I need to tell you snowflakes not to yell at your subordinates." The queen stared down the angry one, causing her to sit on her haunches and let her ears fall. "I'm the only one that yells in this nuthouse."

Then the queen turned to the doctor, while Luna still looked curiously at the dejected big changeling. "What is wrong with her?"

"She's inherited Bossy's archetype is what's wrong with her." The medical changeling complained rubbing her temples.

"Not her…" Chrysalis kept her own temper in check this time and indicated the changeling in the couch with a nod. "Her."

The doctor sighed. "We thought she had Grumpy's archetype, but she actually inherited Laggy's."

Luna walked next to Chrysalis and listened in curiously while the doctor went on with frustration. "Her H.H.T. axis is borked. I don't think she's fit for field duty."

"Can't you help her?" Luna looked worriedly at the three of them. Even if she didn't fully understand what they were talking about, it seemed bad. "Give her a healing potion or something?"

"We can deal with messed up genetics, but there's no healing potion that can fix messed up psychematics…" The small changeling sighed.

"What?" Luna recoiled a bit and the queen sighed.

"The things that make heredity work, Luna." Knowing she was going to ask, the queen went on. "Apparently, I'm all kinds of messed up so my children earn that from me. Simply put, most changelings develop into reasonably healthy adults because they found a mostly healthy environment that counteracts it. But the Praetorians are made with a modified version of the process, and that really messes things up."

Luna wasn't convinced. "Chrysalis, Chocolate Velvet told us how these things work. That is not how it's supposed to be."

Chrysalis didn't let that upset her, though. "He only understands the physical part of it, Luna. Souls, as we know them don't exist in his original world. Whatever happened to my mother really messed up hers and I inherited it. And my changelings inherit it from me. But because it's magical in origin, it can work out in the normal ones. But not in the Praetorians."

Chrysalis sat by the one in the couch. "With the samples I got from Celestia I realized that I'm what would pass for an 'alicorn changeling'. Probably all the brood mothers were… But, because the curse messed up our souls, hers is purer. So, I figured I could use it to mess around with our biology and psychematics… Our souls. To create more 'alicorn changelings'."

"The result were the Praetorians…" Luna said. "But something didn't work as you planned."

"I didn't want other queens that I couldn't boss around… I wanted loyal super-soldiers, so I made several modifications and made them psychologically dependent on me. But they kept developing seven different flaws that always repeated themselves. We called them Archetypes. They're parts of me that kept showing up in them and overpowered their entire expression of their own souls. They turned insane and their mind collapsed."

Luna kept listening to Chrysalis, keeping quiet and letting the queen tell her all she wanted. "Eventually I decided that instead of disposing of them, I should study them and that worked. I figured out how to suppress my own instability in them and I finally managed to make Praetorians that worked. They still inherit the Archetypes, but they were under control."

She put a hoof on the laying changeling's back. "This one is as normal as she'll ever be… But she's inherited the archetype that messes up her hormonal system… 'Laggy'. She needs medication to fix that and soon she'll be fine and won't ever be overpowered by her Archetype. Unless the original one dies."

"How, exactly?"

"Well, I thought I was done with it, and disposed of the overpowered ones, but the original Archetypes kept showing up as the Praetorians grew up and overpowered them… Always seven at a time. So, I studied them some more and figured out that their souls lacked the mechanism that allowed them to go to wherever souls are supposed to go when they leave their dead body."

"They can't die." Luna gasped quietly and was going to say more, but instead kept her mouth shut and let Chrysalis continue.

"They dislodge the souls of the heathy ones of the right Archetype and simply take their place… Letting them live fixed the problem on the Praetorians, but since they're dependent on me, if I rejected them, their mind would collapse and they would go insane in the worst ways possible. So, I got them a place with my soldiers, close to me. And now, we got seven broken 'Chrysalises' running around, unstable as Pinkie Pie in a bad day. Drawn to each other and to me, like a splintered soul seeking to be reunited. I even grew to like them."

"Chrysalis, this is horrifying." Luna shook her head. "What have you done?"

"Ah… Now, here's the kicker…" The queen stared so harshly at Luna, from her higher stature, that the princess recoiled a bit. Not so much her poise, but the shift in tone surprised Luna in a second moment. "I thought it was curious… Because my mother died alright. And so, did my sisters…"

The queen saw understanding in the cyan eyes. "They can't have inherited that eldritch piece of madness from me. So, I looked further into it…"

Luna's jaw dropped a bit.

"Your adored old sister is the fucked-up abomination that lacks the mechanism to go to wherever disembodied souls are supposed to." Grimacing like a demonic beast about to pounce, she grabbed Luna by her peytral. "Isn't it funny? She can't generate children and she can't die, which is exactly what every single soul in this fucking insane asylum of a world is supposed to do."

Her face approached Luna's. "Care to explain, dear little Moonie? Because I don't think that a glorified sex-toy is all you and Celestia wanted from me…"

Luna's eyes hardened though, and she projected her magic forward, pushing away the queen. Chrysalis pushed back in a display of her own strength and immediately regretted. She might as well have tried to push a mountain.

"Choose your words carefully when you refer to my sister, Chrysalis." Luna imposed forward with her wings flared. "Friendship is a two-way road."

The queen smiled mockingly, not intimidated. "So are favors, Moonie."

"We have told you what you needed to know, Chrysalis." Luna managed to look down at Chrysalis, despite being shorter. "When we trust you enough, we may choose to tell you more."

The two stared at each other while the doctor by the couch seemed worried, but the changeling laying in the couch didn't worry at all. Suddenly the sound of someone obnoxiously clearing their throat attracted their attentions. Myrmirex stood by the door with a large looking thestral. The first wearing his robes and the other in his Lunar Guard barding.

"Are we interrupting something, my queen?" The creepy changeling said. "We have news of our little trap. It seems a little fly may have landed, despite us doubting Princess Luna that she had arrived."

The two of them kept their eyes locked for another second before Chrysalis finally looked at her servant. "Where is she?"

It was the thestral who answered with a grave voice. "Princess Cadance's personal guards seem to have attacked one of our checkpoints with a sort of blizzard spell. Three lunar guards and three praetorians are missing."

"I'm surprised Celestia let Cadance simply have an additional guard." Chrysalis mused.

"They're not guards." Luna said and showed a small blush in her face. "They're harlots she employs at the Bordello of Candy. They just dress ceremoniously to accompany her around."

Chrysalis grinned mischievously. "Resourceful little courtesans these, that can take on three Lunar Guards and three Praetorian changelings."

Luna simply blinked twice, unable to find the words to reply to that.

"Now, that 'Bordello of Candy' sounds like the kind of place that would come out of Cadance's perverted little mind." She grinned some more. "I think we ought to see it."

"Fine!" Luna huffed a little flustered. "Get your changelings to watch the palace. We're going with my guards at the place."

The queen agreed with a grin and looked at her assistant. "Get Bossy to bring back all the Praetorians and keep the palace locked down. The princess and I are going on a date."

Twilight left her home with the entirety of her Royal Guard: all two of them. But still, they were a sight to behold! The princess wore her magus barding and her focus scepter stood securely strapped to her side. It was lightly armored, made of purple magically tinted gold and fit her body over a silken white and purple robe. Long and flowing, along with a white cape marked with her royal seal: a winged oval which contained her cutie mark, all in her colors. Atop her head she wore her biggest badge of office, as it was known by the ponies around her, the Big Crown Thingy.

Well, Twilight didn't like that name! Ponies who called it that were the same ones that would call the Alicorn Concordat as the 'Princess Meddling Accord'. It wasn't that big, it wasn't a crown, but a diadem and it wasn't a thing. It was one of the most important things… Artifacts in Equestria: the Element of Magic.

She was flanked by her two guards, both of which carried their purple tinted muskets and halberds on their backs. Ponies moved out of the way and stared in wonder as if something in them drew them to reverence. When the Princess wore that thing… Artifact, she meant business.

For some it was the simple display of wealth and position. Ponies were drawn to follow authority figures. Especially those with enchanted armor. They made things easier and took care of the big problems like monsters and evil overlords. They allowed ponies to focus on the simple things like caring for their flowers, tending to their little shop or whatever their job was.

For the younger, it was the jovial beauty and radiant celebrity. A pony that drew their eyes and hearts. She inspired them to be better. To reach higher. This was one of those ponies that, by the simple virtue of existing compelled them to be the best they could, and then go beyond. A Bearer of an Element of Harmony, she didn't get there by being born into a caste. The pony that wanted nothing more than to take care of the library but answered to the call and got there because she made do.

For others, it was the combination of wings and horn. They saw her as the continuation of the ultimate authority in their entire existence. She seemed to shine under the sunlight with a special glint of how much she existed to show ponies the way. The youngest generation of the ponies that made things work and made Equestria into a utopia.

And finally, for those that were attuned to it, the magic she radiated hit them like a grape-scented wind and made them think of the amazing power that moved reality and that she commanded with her will like it was hers to play with.

But, for certain ponies she was all that and more. She was a beloved friend, with all her shortcomings, but that still managed to break through Discord's confounding magic. The one that brought them together as a single unified force that thwarted the evil of the heartbroken princess of the night. The one that stood against the dark magic of King Sombra and of Lord Tyrek. The one that taught, learned and lent strength and wisdom. The shinning beacon in the fog of animosity.

The heir to the Sun and Moon.

The one they would follow to the depths of Tartarus or against the godlike power of the Matriarch of Equestria.

The annoying smartypants little sister.

The aunt that gave the second-best toys… Suddenly Flurry Heart looked around at the armored ponies, none of which capable of giving her milk or was the head honcho. She realized she was on the wrong side of this whole mess. Fortunately, nopony could understand what the baby said to herself.

Twilight wished they wouldn't do that. It drew a lot more attention than she needed, and it made her remember Archduke Blueblood. She only wore that whole paraphernalia because it was her due and it made her better at her job.

Still, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity stood with Shining Armor, the baby, Starlight Glimmer, the maid and the dragon. They looked like they were posing for a photo shoot, with Pinkie wearing that festive gambeson of hers and Applejack with her Stetson and brown leather barding, next to Rarity and her stylish gambeson. Not to mention Shining Armor next to Starlight and Miss Calcite holding a grumpy baby.

What were they thinking? They were staring at her in the middle of the road!

"How come I don't have a fancy jewel to wear?" Starlight asked nopony in particular.

"Get used to it." Spike chuckled next to her.

"Girls, Shinny." Twilight grinned through her annoyance, trotting next to them. It was impossible to not get excited next to them. Before a big mission. Even if it was that particular mission. "We're missing Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Cadance, right?"

"Cadie went to the Crystal Empire to fetch our things." Shinning said. "She can teleport to the ship."

Cadance's raw power never ceased to amaze Twilight. She teleported all the way to the Crystal Empire! Wow! "Well, let's get to the airship and prepare to defend her until we can leave.

"Twilight, what do we do if Princess Celestia is waiting for us at the hangar?" Pinkie didn't sound so sure, suddenly.

Twilight steeled her resolve. This time she would have her friends and all her assisting regalia. She could even stand to hope the ponies of Ponyville would side with her. Her diadem weighted ever so slightly heavier in her head. She was doing what she was meant to do. Couldn't hold back a smile.

"We'll confront her. And we will succeed… We are doing what is right."

Spike pointed behind her. "What about angry looking ponies in barding and with guns?!"

She turned around to see a group of twelve ponies. They were all earth ponies and one unicorn. One female. They wore a particular leather barding that Twilight wasn't used to seeing often. They were led by a breathless obese pony and a resentful looking mare.

She flared her wings. "Lord Protector Grape Donut. I thought I would eventually meet you."

He just blinked a couple of times, completely flabbergasted to the point of forgetting all his resentment and dyspnea. "You know who I am?"

"Of course, I do! You are the appointed head of Ponyville's Local Militia!" Twilight put herself in a fighting stance. "You are certainly here because Princess Celestia ordered me arrested! You must know that I am well within my rights… Neigh… Duty to investigate and prosecute as a Princess of Equestria! And I will fight for it, if I must!"

"Did she just say 'neigh'?" Applejack looked like she'd eaten something past due. But Rarity shushed her and flashed a grin like she was watching the best drama since the Tale of Nightmare Moon in theaters.

But the target of Twilght's words didn't react so well... The fat earth pony grimaced and fought back his tears before hitting the dirt with a strong hoof. "Stop mocking me!"

Twilight took a step back, half surprised, half confused. "I am not… What?"

"This is all your fault!" The pony accused her and to Twilight's greater confusion, she watched as the ponies next to him agreed and nodded with hard expressions. Some of them pawed at the packed dirt road as though they were ready to charge. Ponies on both sides, the same ones that recognized her majesty, watched as confused as she was.

"If it wasn't for you, it would be me these ponies would cheer for!" He accused with a step towards her, actually looking intimidating, despite the distance. "I was the one that was supposed to protect the town!"

Ponies reacted with shocked surprise at his statement and a few of them started booing and raising accusatory hooves, taking sides with their princess. But the fat pony never relented, despite being called jealous and loser. He had endured worse. His dulled grape-colored coat didn't shine in the sun and his leather barding had seen better days, but he stood his ground. "I'll arrest your purple flank and drag you to a cell if it is the last thing I do!"

More booing and angry shouts, but he still stood his ground. He would not give up. And for the first time, something different happened: his ponies stood with him. Then, he finally said it. "By the authority of her Royal Highness, the Solar Diarch of Equestria Princess Celestia, I order you and your cohorts to stand down and surrender your weapons! You are under arrest!"

Ponies gasped at the mention of Celestia's name. Suddenly, the whole town wasn't so sure. A rift seemed to form, and ponies began arguing among themselves.

"Wow. He's kinda good." Shinning said next to Twilight, but she stared downward, still somewhat confused until she finally understood what was happening there. Besides the pony trying to arrest her, that is.

"Oh no…" She whispered to herself and a sense of guilty grasped her stomach, one very similar to when the Changeling Queen and her lackey interrogated her.

Then Rarity stepped next to her, looking serious and holding her wheellock pistols in her magic. "What a loser. Let's do this, Twilight."

"Rarity! Wait!" The princess shrieked and her magic forced Rarity's weapons down. Her white friend and others stared at her. "These ponies are sick!"

"Indeed, they are!" Rarity agreed with an aggravated tone. "You wouldn't believe the way they treated me!"

"No!" Twilight shook her head in distress. "Really, really sick!"

When they stared at her again, this time with confusion, she explained. "They are suffering from PISD!"

"Pissed?" Pinkie frowned confused.

"No! Psychic Imperative Stress Disorder!" She looked at the militiaponies, still waiting for them to surrender, and then back to her friends. "Ponies are born with talents and destinies to guide them and will seek to fulfill them subconsciously. But if they can't… They'll become restless, aggressive and unpleasant! Eventually their talents become corrupted and they will devolve into malcontent evil creatures that want nothing more than to disrupt other ponies' happiness until they can't even be called sentient anymore!"

Wait." Applejack stuck out behind Rarity. "You mean… Cutie Mark Failure Insanity? That is a thing? I thought Applebloom was trying to wrangle me!"

"She probably was." Starlight stood next to Twilight. "But it is a real thing! It's the psychological mechanism that makes ponies seek their cutie marks and look for roles to fill in the community where they can share their talents with others. I tried to exploit that."

"Discord abused this mechanism to turn you girls against me when he escaped!" She turned to the ponies opposing them. "These ponies need help! It's my fault they're like this!"

"Oh, come on, Twilight…" Starlight rolled her eyes, a little disappointed since she was agreeing with Twilight until then. "It's not your fault."

"If we didn't live here, they would be the ones to protect Ponyville! Because we live here, they can't fulfill their destinies!" Twilight sounded frantic. "It is my fault! I need to help them!"

Not far from there another crowd had formed. A group of ponies tripped over themselves to serve the big white alicorn sitting in a pillow next to a coffee table. Next to her was her loyal guard, dressed in gold and looking like the image of serenity at his post. They made a point of ignoring the kerfuffle not far from them. The Princess was in their establishment and they would serve her! She would have her tea and pie even if Ponyville was about to turn into a battlefield!

They noticed the brown alicorn that arrived too, and they would assist the Prince-Consort however way he would need too. Even if the blanket over his back looked like it belonged in a pile of rags and his mane was a mess. They started by taking away the pony-sized chair and providing a pillow.

"Celestia! I came as fast as I could! Twilight escaped!" He said as he sat and put his hooves on the table.

"I know." She said calmly and smiled at him. "What happened to you?"

"Twilight banished me… It took me a while to escape…" He said.

"She locked you in the library and you crawled out a window." She concluded with an amused smile and he grunted.

"Yes."

She giggled while he stared at what she was watching beyond the crowd and other angry crowd full of angry ponies shouting at each other, to see Twilight exchanging words with her friends and shouts with some armored ponies.

He looked at Celestia. She was still watching the scene. "She's right there. What are you doing sitting here?"

"I am watching Twilight do her thing." The princess grinned brightly. "It's awe inspiring."

Chocolate looked at Twilight flapping her wings and shouting at the armored ponies. He couldn't hear what she was saying but rallied the crowd. Then, the pony leading the others said something else and he too drew cheers from the crowd. Ponies shouted and pointed hooves the same as Twilight and the other pony.

"I think there is a civil war ready to break out there, Celestia." He sounded worried, but she simply kept smiling.

"Of course, there is… I thought you would be used to it already. They make they make drama for the noblest of causes and silliest of mistakes. They discover things and they explore their knowledge. They find secrets and do all they can to unravel them. They make mistakes and they comprehend. They are alive."

He stared at her, drooping his head in curiosity, and she went on. "I make mistakes too. Sometimes."

"Huh?"

"I sent Twilight here to find her friends and to distance her from the canterlotian nobility. She was too naïve. Too well intentioned." Her face turned sour. "You have no idea how unbearable Cadance was as a teenage little rising noble."

He let out an unintentional chuckle.

"In doing that, I put Twilight at odds with some ponies and they became incapable of fulfilling their Animus Imperative."

"Their what?" He looked

"Their Animus Imperative…" She mused. "Ponies today call it their 'destinies'. If Equestria was a song, ponies would be the melody, and their Animus Imperatives would be their instruments. Like a song, it ebbs and flows. It changes. It grows and diminishes. If a wrong note is played, others react, and the song is healed."

He couldn't keep from staring at her. She spoke with such wonder. A sense of bewilderment. "If there was a war to be fought, brave ponies would be born. If famine would strike… Farmer and merchant ponies would answer to the call and fix the problem. One way or another."

She smiled at him. "When an old queen lost her little sister because she failed her Animus Imperative, six wonderful ponies were born and brought forth the Elements of Harmony to mend her soul."

"Balance was restored, and Harmony prevailed." She looked at the crowd again.

"So…" He started carefully. "Twilight being here was a problem. How do things fix themselves?"

"Well, we've found ourselves here, right now, haven't we?" She looked at him, letting him process what she had said until he nodded, but them looked at her.

"What is my Animus Imperative?" He asked curiously.

"Why, it is to please me." She gave him a mock superior smile. "Isn't it obvious?"

He deadpanned and she gave him the final forkful of her pie, putting it in his mouth before standing up. "Come on. Time to take our places to fix the problem I've unwittingly created."

He stood too. "I don't think it can be called your mistake, Celestia. If you hadn't sent Twilight, bad things would've happened, right?"

"Correct." She smiled cheerfully. "But bad rulers concentrate power and cast blame. Good ones delegate power and take responsibility. Come on, Sir Velvet. It is time to shine!"


	9. The Princess War, Pt 2

"Twilight, I understand wanting to help these ponies." Applejack stared at the militiaponies and then back at her. "But I think we got bigger problems to deal with! Besides, how would we even help them right now?"

"We are waiting, princess!" Grape Donut called loudly backed by his ponies with muskets trained on them. Almost a dozen barrels aimed at her and friends, certainly loaded with magical subduing bullets but that wasn't the point.

Rarity thankfully, like the others remained quiet and patiently ready.

Twilight bit her lip and her eyes shifted nervously among the ponies in front of her. She had heard both of them but wasn't sure how to deal with the situation and found herself in a bind she didn't know how to get out of. Those weren't new in her life, but she needed time to think and she wasn't preemptively prepared for the situation as she usually was.

She had made an argument as well as a small show of 'princessdom' to stall, but she was quickly running out of time.

She knew she and her friends could defeat these ponies in a fight even if they were already at a disadvantage, but then… How would they feel? It was an awkward situation to be in! She had to hurry too because Princess Celestia would notice the commotion eventually, and right then she would not be able to confront her. The sooner she left the better. She preferably should go already on her journey because she would need a lot more evidence than she had if it came to an official hearing. Which is what would happen if she ended up being captured too soon.

That is considering the Princess didn't do something to her, and she still rather not think too much of all the things an evil Princess Celestia could do to her.

At the same time, she felt she had to do something about these ponies. If they just beat them and left, they would be left even worse than they already seemed to be. Wouldn't they? The worst part of it was that she wouldn't be sure how to proceed even if she had everything in her favor.

She knew that she would eventually find a way of dealing with that satisfactorily, but she didn't have the time… Lord Donut already seemed like he's patience was exhausted.

"Lord Donut!" She finally called. "Listen to me! We are on an important mission and you must let us go! I promise that we will get things right as soon as we're back."

"Do you take me for stupid, Princess?" He only got angrier. "This is your last warming!"

She scowled. Great time he had picked to start doing his job. It just so happened that she was starting to run out of her patience too! Things could only get worse from there.

"Halt!" A familiar voice called from the sky and Chocolate Velvet dropped out of the blue, both figuratively and literally, standing close to Grape Donut's ponies and drawing everypony's attentions with his flamboyant display of large wings and shiny golden armor over his flowing white and blue robes.

"Princess Celestia finds herself extremely disappointed, Twilight Sparkle!" He pointed at her in such a dramatic display of attention-grabbing theatrics the princess imagined Rarity must have felt her title for drama-queen threatened. "Her Highness could not believe the mayhem you have created!"

Her eye trembled a bit. "That I created?! It's all because-"

"Hush!" He shouted petulantly and standing on his hind legs. "Whatever you think you are doing is irrelevant! Were it not for you this would have been a perfectly fine day for Her Highness' subjects of Ponyville!"

Back on his fours he turned around, letting his mane and robes flail around making him seen even bigger and addressed her while looking at the assembled ponies. "Now because of you and your retinue, ponies are pointing hooves and yelling at each other! Harmony weeps at such display of disarray."

"Harmony weeps…" Applejack sighed. "For pony's sake."

"But!" Twilight caught and quieted herself, finally understanding what he was doing. He had managed to get the attentions of the general populace assembled nearby and had a similar effect on Grape Donut and his ponies too.

"No quarter for your insolence young princess!" He stared back at them and she shut her lips, but… Oh boy… Was he lucky she couldn't put him in his place right then. "Had you and your misguided gang surrendered at first opportunity, as is expected from distinctive members of the nobility in such a situation, you would have spared the town of this most disruptive commotion!"

"He is enjoying this far too much…" Rarity mumbled to Twilight, unamused. "Really…"

The worst part is that some ponies seemed to be agreeing with him!

Finally, the alicorn turned to the line of militiaponies keeping his muzzle high. "Lord Protector!"

"Sir?!" Grape Donut started. "Yes! Your Highness?"

Her Highness expects Ponyville's Finest to ensure that this situation is dealt with and order is restored with the utmost celerity!"

"Absolutely, your highness!" The pony thrust forward his chest, as much as his tight barding would allow, at least. "As the princess commands!"

"Outstanding! I shall leave you to it, then." He jumped a little hop, flapped his wings, gained height and flew over the houses.

There was a moment of silence.

"I thought he was going to help us…" Semolina Pudding, like the others stared up the rooftops where he had vanished.

"Typical Canterlot. Doesn't matter. It's our job." Their commander spat on the ground and then stared again at the princess and her group of friends. "You have been sufficiently warned! Have at them, ponies!"

In that exact moment a large magic energy shield manifested in front of the group of ponies backing the princess. A solid, curved wall of purple energy marked with the design of the star within a shield topped by three stars. The crackling of muskets signaled the assembled ponyvillians to spread in barely contained panic amid screams and even louder thundering hooves. Magical crystal bullets exploded harmlessly on the shield with a sequence of bangs and soft flashes.

A purple body shot up to the sky, the young dragon flew away between the houses with a white bundle and the pink pony dragged the crystal pony away, so fast Grape Donut barely noticed it. Muskets were fired again and two of his militiaponies fell to the ground with gasps as the magic in the bullets exploded on their faces, away from their barding, and released their subduing magic. Smoke rose from the Princess' guards' muskets at either side of the shield.

He didn't have time to think, but figured they still had the advantage. His own ponies drew their batons and he was actually proud at the way they kept the formation. They would wait for his order to charge.

He also noticed that the orange pony, 'The' Applejack, charged towards them from one side of their magical shield and, from the other side, 'The' Captain Shining Armor also charged at them. Both were unarmed, it seemed, though the orange one had a holstered firearm in her barding and a greatsword. She didn't seem keen on using them though, and he had no idea how an earth pony could use a greatsword effectively.

"Captain Armor!" The unicorn guard of the Princess tossed him her halberd and he caught it in mid sprint with his magic. The thing spun its momentum off in his magical grasp next to him while he closed the distance, pointing the butt side of the weapon towards his ponies.

They were two. And his ponies were more than ten. Grape Donut was perfectly convinced that they could beat these two for a starter especially after Twilight's two guards had discharged their muskets.

"Charge them!" Grape Donut cried, but it was followed by cracking thunder in the sky. A storm of magical projectiles rained on them spiraling down from the purple alicorn who held her scepter next to her, high above.

His ponies where bombarded with a hail of exploding purple light and scattered, driven to panic by bright flashes and loud bangs. A broken formation, completely ineffective and still being hit by the princess' magic.

Gunfire came from the back. He didn't even know how, but both Ladies Rarity and Starlight Glimmer were BEHIND his line and the white unicorn moved like a ghost, blinking out of existence for an instant while his guard hit nothing but the air and then had his muzzle smashed by the guard of her hoof-held rapier when she reappeared. And next to her, the pinkish unicorn tied three of his ponies back to back with a spell. Complete with a bow.

It was near this moment that Semolina realized that she was not one of the fighters, should not be in the middle of all that, and did the only thing that she really could: dropped to the ground with a shriek and covered her head under the scary magic. Grape Donut though, thought fast and jumped on top of her to be hit in her place by the princess' magic.

The result was that he found himself immobilized by a large pink ball of bubblegum. It smelled of tutti-frutti, but most importantly he realized they were hopelessly outclassed. The orange pony threw one of his against the ground and then kicked another, sending him reeling back. The scuffle ended when Captain armor tripped his lanky brown earth pony guard with the butt of his weapon and then pinned him to the ground with it holding the weapon with his hooves for leverage. Cleverly, his pony didn't resist.

Half his ponies, including himself were stuck inside stupid bubblegum balls, and the others cowered a safe distance away or had surrendered.

"Hurry!" Twilight cried from above, pointing with a hoof and her friends broke into gallop, accompanied by her and Spike right above, as well as Pinkie Pie and the crystal pony maid, seemingly coming out of nowhere.

"I'm not prepared to do this sort of thing!" Miss Calcite did her best to keep up in her uniform, and Pinkie giggled, keeping next to her.

"Get them!" Grape Donut did his best to remain still, but his bubblegum casing kept rolling around with him. "Get up and chase them! Go! GO!"

His shouts ended when the rolling ball shoved his face on the ground, but a few of his ponies did manage to find the courage and followed his orders. They would have to gain quite a significant ground in their chase, but they were not out yet. A part of his mind allowed him dreaming they could still stop their quarry. Even if they couldn't, they would still try.

Far ahead, Spike flew next to Twilight and handed her the happily cheering baby, whom Twilight smiled at while quickly looking her over. She seemed to be alright.

"Twilight!" Applejack called her from the ground as they ran between the houses and the group divided itself in the narrow spaces. "What about Rainbow and Fluttershy!"

"They'll have to catch up!" But she thought for an instant. "Rainbow will be fine! When the ship is moving, we'll look for Fluttershy! Right now, we have to reach the Magic of Friendship and hope the crew kept her!"

Chocolate Velvet followed Celestia in a quick trot in between the ponyvillian houses, also using the small alleys, but different ones as they meant to go to the Militia Headquarters instead of chasing Twilight and her friends.

"I'm not sure this is going to work the way you intend, Celestia!" He nervously followed the quick pace she imposed. "The local militia can't catch Twilight!"

"Of course, they can't." She didn't stop or look back at him. "Twilight and her herd are seasoned adventurers with the best enchanted equipment we could make. Not to mention that they are constantly training and participating in our weekly sparring sessions. I never intended for them to succeed."

"But… Twilight will escape!"

"Temporarily, yes." She remained as calm as ever. "But Chrysalis said they are going to Griffinsky, the Lion's Fortress in Snow Mountain hold. The only way they can reach it in Twilight's airship is through Manehattan. They'll need supplies and stopping at Manehattan will be enough risk already. Snow Mountain is to the North-East, and though griffon lands cover most of the eastern continent, she knows that she must go straight there because she is running from me and the Chancellor is desperate for support. He would invest in capturing a wayward princess for my favor."

He listened quietly, still following her.

"She won't make it to Manehattan, though. We will ambush them near Baltimare. Unfortunately, the Bordello of Candy is closed, but I've made reservations in a local casino resort!" She giggled and pranced excitedly in place for a while. "The guards will love the idea and Twilight, Cadance and their friends can relax for a while before we have a conversation. After all, if I went to Twilight now, she would feel cornered and could confront me. It would turn very ugly."

"But, perhaps most Important…" She stopped at an intersection and looked around to see if anyone was around, them looked back at him. "We have to figure out what happened here."

He was confused. "I thought you said that it was that they couldn't seek to fulfil their destinies."

"The Animus Imperative, yes." She turned to him. "But I should have been aware that there was something wrong in here. I am willing to wager a significant amount of cake that somewhere along the administrative chain somepony was comfortable letting them be miserable because trying to fix the issue was going to involve a lot of work and bring attention to them filling their saddlebags with public security funds."

Since he simply stared expectantly at her she went on. "Royal Treasury money for Ponyville's militia is coming down to Ponyville through Canterlot County and complaints about the militia should be going up, but they never reached me. If the militia is not being useful, the local administration is going to reduce their funding because local resources can be used in any way they want. But that would be noticed by the Canterlot County administration and they would need to figure out what is going on, and then adjust the amount of money that is directed at Ponyville for public security, and also report to the Royal Treasury so that we stop putting money were it isn't needed, because County and Royal resources can only be used for what they are destined. The whole system is coordinated by the administrations, they are supposed to communicate to each other, making each other's job easier."

"Well, if nopony knew that Ponyville Militia was wasting resources, then these would keep being transferred, but since they would not be needed at their destination, nopony would notice if they vanished. Not to mention that complaints are stopping somewhere in the chain. Complaints create noise, you know."

"It could be somepony in the Ponyville Mayor's office, it could be Lord Protector Grape Donut, but it could also be somepony in the County Militia Administration. It could be the archduke. It could be somepony in the royal treasury. It could be Shining Armor, since he is the one that gives me the reports from every branch of the Royal Guard and Local Militias. I believe the problem is with the County administration, because their inspectors report directly to the head of their department, so the Lord Protector for the County could be in trouble."

Then she put a wing over his armored back and grinned like he was his buddy about to do some mischief. "So, here is what we are going to do: I have sent Crucible Wings to delay the airship. And you will join the militia and make sure that they don't lose too badly… They need some motivation. Meanwhile, I will be in the Militia Headquarters or the Mayor's Office, rallying my ponies to audit the whole thing."

"What if I manage to capture Twilight?" He asked and gave him the smuggest of smiles and poked his chest with a hoof.

"Then I will get you something special, Sir Chocolate Velvet."

While the majority of Ponyville's local militia was ordered by their Lieutenant to converge and engage their targets in the streets, those were the ponies involved in the 'Teleporter Fiasco', as Semolina called it. The ones that held the damn thing and never even got involved until their boss told them to stop wasting time there.

The truth is that the ponies that had been sent to the Princess' palace didn't engage her and instead kept a standoff observation of their target. Nothing to do with the fact that she left the palace accompanied by two Royal Guards. Not at all. Later, they rejoined with the others.

The ponies sent to Sweet Apple Acres never arrived, instead remained with the ones in the teleporter because that seemed like less of a hassle than dealing with the Apples.

The ponies sent to Carousel Boutique never reported back and Grape Donut feared the worst. They probably went for lunch or something like that…

Other ponies that hadn't reported in yet were the two pairs sent to Fluttershy's cottage and to Rainbow Dash's cloud mansion. The first pair was expected to succeed in their mission of apprehending the shy pegasus, but the second pair was pretty much considered out of action already.

The thing is that, despite his initial lack of faith in his mission and troops, Grape Donut knew what he was doing, after all, at one moment, he was very motivated with his career. So, when he found in town an old acquaintance from his time studying everything there was to know about military doctrine, he asked for a favor.

Because of that the two pegasus guardsponies of Ponyville were supposed to lay a watch over their resident Wonderbolt's mansion and wait for his friend's arrival. And so, they did. One a light gray male with a soft electric blue mane cut in the mohawk style, and the other a deep blue female, with a red and white long mane. Both wore their 'pegasus-cut' leather barding, complete with wheellock pistol on a holster and magical stunning baton.

They laid on a nearby cloud keeping watch over the cloud mansion. They hoof-made a small mound behind which they could hide and rest their front legs while holding their spyglasses. The ones issued by the militia weren't very good or pretty, but they got their job done.

"I'm not seeing her on the upper floor." The male one said in a calm and low voice. "Do you see her Candy?"

His answer was a soft snore.

"What? Candy?!" He looked to his side and was greeted by the sight of the cute blue mare laying on her back and snoozing without a care in the world. How she managed to sleep with the barding on he'll never know but stared hard at her and called her in the loudest whisper he'd manage. "Candy! What the hay! Wake up!"

She started for an instant and stared at him. "What?! Is she out already?!"

"No! You're sleeping!" He was almost angry. "Come on! This is our chance!"

"What?" She rubbed her eyes and barely seemed to focus on him.

He couldn't decide if she was just still sleepy of if she really had forgotten what they had come there to do. "Candy! We gotta watch Rainbow Dash! If we do this right, Princess Celestia is gonna say nice things about us, we're gonna get more funding and we're gonna get better equipment! Ponies will like us more! Mayor Mare might even authorize a raise in our salary!"

"Yeah, yeah… I know." She righted herself to lay on her belly, fumbling with her barding for a while until she found her own spyglass. "I just don't think it's going to make that much of a difference, you know?"

"What do you mean?" He watched as she held a sad face and brought her instrument to her eye rather disinterested in whatever she might ever see there.

"Canterlot doesn't care about us…" She lowered her spyglass for an instant. "Sorry to burst your bubble. Really. But we won't get more funding or fame. There's somepony in Canterlot that's dinning every night in a fancy restaurant thanks to us and money that should be coming to us."

"Wow." His eyes widened. "Do you really think so? I don't know… Gramma always told me that Princess Celestia watched over us from her palace in Canterlot."

The mare rolled her eyes. "Yeah… She's too busy making sure that the rich ponies get richer so that they keep supporting her. How else do you rule a nation for… Heck… Thousands of years?"

"Geez, you're very cynical, know that?" He frowned in a small display of annoyance. "Just because there are a few annoying ponies in Canterlot, it doesn't mean that all of them are bad, or even that Princess Celestia is in cahoots with them or something like that. The princesses are perfect and everything they do is for the good of Equestria even if we don't understand it right away."

Then it was Candy's turn to show a frustrated expression. "Let me know when you grow out of childhood crush on the princesses. Then we can discuss about us trying to apprehend one of their friends because the Big Mare in Canterlot decided we should. Twilight is probably missing her tribute or some horseapples like that."

The pegasus mare then frowned deeply and spoke in a low, serious voice. "I hear they do all sorts of weird parties and orgies in those fancy airships of theirs… It's the sort of thing too much money will do to you. It's disgusting…"

"Yeah… I need to grow up, right?" The other pegasus deadpanned, but suddenly the cloud shifted a little and they turned around to see a big, scary griffon standing next to them. Emphasis on 'scary'.

While she squeaked like a rubber toy, her partner gasped and let his spyglass fall through the cloud.

"Kept you waiting, huh? Are you with the Ponyville Militia?" He asked in a rough voice, the typical voice you'd expect from a hardened veteran. For some reason.

Griffons were big by the definitions of most ponies, and also scary by the same definition and, when they had the attitude to match, they were doubly scary. This one was all that and gray bodied, with their typical white head were a bizarre scar went up the right side of his face through his eye that was covered with a black eye-patch. His left eye seemed perfect, though. They didn't know if its natural color was that icy gray or if he, somehow, had such a hardened and cold look about him that his eye seemed so. It made sense in the head of a pair of intimidated ponies.

He seemed ready for business too, wearing a black studded leather armor complete with metal plated armbands and leggings, not to mention gloves that allowed his claws through. The two ponies didn't know why he carried weapons because those claws and his intimidating presence seemed more than enough to put out anything, but he had a collection of them. He carried one of the famous griffon revolver muskets on his back, on his side he had one of those new and fancy revolvers, though the revolver itself wasn't adorned in any way. Finally, he had a knife across his chest.

He looked like a soldier, not like a law enforcement officer. That rubbed Candy Crush in the wrong direction.

For a second or two he simply stared at the two until the female pegasus cleared her throat and smiled awkwardly, offering a hoof. "Ah… Yes! We are with the Ponyville Militia! I'm Candy Crush. And he is Flight Worthy."

The griffon bumped her hoof with his fist but spoke coldly. "I'll have to report you to your superior officer for gossiping on watch duty."

'Definitively military…' She grunted internally. 'At least he didn't catch me sleeping…'

The two ponies though, exchanged a glance, and then Candy insisted. "Hum. So, you're our contact, right? What do we call you, then?"

"Flying Snake."

"Oooh… Cool name." She laughed awkwardly. "Were did you get the cool scar to match?"

"Don't we have a job to do?"

"Oh! Yeah! Right! Uh…" While Candy Crush fumbled with her words, Flight Worthy approached the griffon with a more professional demeanor.

"Our mission is to apprehend Rainbow Dash. We've been scouting her mansion and she hasn't left yet. She's supposed to leave for Ponyville soon however, since her friends are waiting for her in Princess Twilight's airship dock. We also have seen her through windows, and she seemed like she was getting ready to leave, grabbing stuff and such."

The griffon hummed after acknowledging the pegasus and surveyed the building. "I'll infiltrate from the top. You two create a diversion at the entrance."

Candy Crush immediately realized she was getting the short end of the stick, the one that usually got beat up and was rewarded with a pat on the back, but before she could complain her companion had his chest all puffed up under his barding, looking like he belonged on the Royal Guard with a headful of all those words they used to make a pony do stupid things like 'duty' and 'honor.

She simply sighed to herself and followed her companion to the door, waiting while he banged on it with his hoof. "Rainbow Dash! Ponyville Militia! Open up!"

There were a few seconds of silence, when Candy Crush eyed the top the cloud house and saw the griffon sneaking in through a window. Eventually, the answer came from inside. "Why?"

"Because you have to! It's an official order from a royal-sanctioned law enforcement authority!" Flight Worthy shouted back and put his ear to the icy door only to have it smash against his face and throw him off the steps.

"Open enough for ya?" The blue pegasus chuckled like she had made a good joke and Candy Crush immediately drew her magical shock baton, holding it in her mouth and quickly taking the chance while her target was distracted. It was one quick and fluid motion that would've filled Royal Guards with jealousy.

Surprisingly, she also did manage to hit her target with its crystal point, completely surprising Dash, but nothing happened other than a small click. The two stared at each other, confused for a second, before the militiapony prodded her with the baton a few more times, without better results.

"Oh, for pony's sake!" She grabbed it with a hoof and shook it angrily.

At least Rainbow Dash had remained where she was, staring at the thing as much as Candy was, more curious than anything. "Wanna try again?"

The militia pony snarled and tried to hit the other in the head with the thing in her heel, but she was nowhere near as fast as Rainbow Dash, who jumped in and headbutted her causing both to roll down the steps. The baton fell through the cloud and Candy hoped to whatever gods might be listening the griffon wouldn't take long to help when she landed on her back with Rainbow Dash over her.

Out of options under her opponent, she bit at Rainbow's mane and pulled as hard as she could, bringing her down over herself and caused the surprised pegasus to yelp painfully. That earned her a kick on the belly that, even under the barding's protection knocked the air out of her.

"Now you're gonna get it!" She had lost her grip on the other's mane and Rainbow pushed her against the cloud, making it a weird fluffy hole she was stuck on. She couldn't even see it, so fast it all happened, but she heard when her assailant's hoof connected, and bone broke with a harsh jolt of pain all the way to her neck.

Candy's hooves found her muzzle with another jolt of pain and a muffled cry. She prepared to receive another hit, but what happened instead is that the griffon tackled the pegasus and tumbled away with her.

Mid-tumble he drew his knife and tried to hit his target's jaw with its butt, but before he could connect she kicked him with all four legs at his midsection and flew away, landing a good distance from him, watching while he recovered himself. She kept a fighting stance, with flared wings and pawed at the cloud menacingly. "Who the hay are you?!"

He stood on his hind legs and stared back at her while he sheathed his knife. "Crown-Registered mercenary and bounty-hunter. You're in contempt with Ponyvillian Local Militia and I am under contract to take you in. Now stand down before I hurt you bad!"

"Heh! Make me!" Her muzzle flashed a cocky smile.

His eyes narrowed in concentration.

His hand flew faster than any griffon's and drew his griffon-made revolver. Fast as lightning it shot its five magic ball bullets and all five of them collided on the icy wall the pegasus literally pulled out of the cloud in front of her. That she then kicked and turned into thousands of sharp ice shards that showered against the griffon. Stupid… He was old enough to know not to fight a trained pegasus on a damn cloud.

"Dammit!" He grunted with a wing over his face. Feathers froze and shredded, his whole wing burned with cold and hundreds of diminutive cuts.

Next thing she had flown away with her cocky laughter.

A rainbow trail led inside her house, her bedroom he remembered, and then towards Ponyville. He thought of giving chase immediately, but the blue pegasus from the militia had not climbed out of the cloud yet, and she could be injured; so he went to her, finding her laying on her back, holding her muzzle in her hooves and with a bloodied barding.

"You're injured give me your hoof." He laid by the hole in the cloud and reached with his arm, pulling up the injured mare.

"You okay?!" The griffon gave her some space after she had stabilized herself in a sitting position with one heel over her muzzle.

"Bitch broke my muzzle!" She stared at the blood on her heel. "I can't believe this! I don't get paid enough for this! Oww…"

"Baton malfunctioned?" He was checking his own flight feathers but noticed the pegasus seemed to be in undue pain, so he turned his attention back to her. "Let me see."

She raised her muzzle a bit for him to see. "It's not that bad. Hold still. It's broken, alright, but your militia's doctor should be able to set it."

"Pfft. Our 'doc'. He went to Canterlot after he had got enough credit with the Canterlot University and never returned." She grumbled angrily. "We go to Ponyville's hospital when we're injured."

"Get a hold of yourself soldier. Job's not done yet: she flew to Ponyville. The rest of the militia must be getting ready to assault her meeting point with her friends."

"Yeah, yeah…" While the griffon grabbed his revolver rifle, she went to Flight Worthy, still out cold, laying on his side with barely a scratch and a small bruise on his cheek. She rolled her eyes… She got punched and headbutted resulting in a broken muzzle. He got hit by a giant door and barely got a bruise.

She kicked him in the belly through the barding and he yelped more in surprise than in pain and stared at her. "What happened to your muzzle?!"

"Rainbow Dash kissed me. What do you think?! Get up already, she flew to Ponyville." She turned her back to him and walked toward the griffon. Really didn't want to know how her face looked like right now.

Fortunately, the griffon was already done working his flight feathers and was ready to go. "Can you fly?"

"Yeah." She grumbled some more. "Not like I got a choice anyway."

"Stop complaining." His berating deep voice almost made her recoil. "Your technique was sloppy. Had it been a real fight you'd be dead now."

She didn't answer. Simply jumped off the cloud and took flight ahead of the other two.

Brisk Bronco and Marble Hoof walked the small trail out of town, bordering the forest and were very happy with the job they had gotten. Capturing Fluttershy ought to be the easiest task of this whole operation. Both earth ponies, one was a larger than the typical specimen, with yellow coat and orange mane going with his eyes. Would've been impressive looking if not for his dulled colors and near constant pissed off expression. The other was a deep brown with a sand-colored mane and green eyes with white hooves, hence his name, and was much comelier, not to mention a normal size.

While the first was known for being aggressive and often intimidated ponies by threat of violence in the random jobs they actually got in the Militia, the second was levelheaded and remained one of the quasi-professional militiaponies, even if he had some weird ideas. He was one of the last members to join and still retained some semblance of sense of duty. He liked to think that was the reason the Lord Protector had paired him with his partner, for example.

That is, Brisk Bronco was never a very sweet and nice pony, but he could swear he had gotten worse when things started going south in the militia, and his strength started serving more as a liability than an asset. He knew his friend wasn't bad or anything, but he did have a short temper and often didn't seem to understand basic things about living in a community.

Soon the pair reached Fluttershy's Cottage and all her animals seemed to be apprehensive over something. Maybe they realized their caretaker was going to travel for a while?

While Marble hoof stopped to look at a pair of squirrels hurrying up a tree, the other went up to the door and violently banged on the door, yelling like a deranged psychopath.

"Open the door Fluttershy! That is an order!"

"Dude! What are you doing?" The other held his hoof on his own. "Are you crazy?! That is not how we approach a suspect!"

"She's not a suspect, bro!" Simply banged on the door again. "She's a criminal that we gotta apprehend and she's a mare. Gotta show them who's boss. They get uppity if you don't put them in their place."

"Gee… And I wondered why Blackie left you."

He banged some more on the door. "Fluttershy! Open this door before you regret it."

"Man, how did you pass the 'de-escalating approach' training?"

"I showed that pansy-flank instructor who's a savage brute." He smiled to himself. "Yeah… Showed him good."

He was going to bang at the door again, but it opened. They didn't see the yellow pegasus they expected, though. Instead, it was a light-green earth pony mare with a messy reddish mane and purple eyes in a very relaxed expression.

"Dude. Your aura is like… All aggressive. Do you need something to relax?"

"Who are you?" The big earth pony stared her squarely in the eyes. She simply blinked slowly.

"I'm Tree Hugger. I'm taking tea. Herbal tea. With my friends. Do you want some?"

"I don't want no tea!" Brisk aggressively put his hoof on the doorframe. "Get Fluttershy out here, now!"

Marble gave up and sat to the side, massaging his forehead in frustration while the pony by the door seemed unfazed. "Fluttershy's a little scared right now. Of you. So, could you like… Stop yelling and such?"

"Lady, get your friend out here before I go in and smash your faces in for interfering with militia business!" Her mane waved about with his angry shouting, but her face remained serene.

"Be right back." She stepped away from the door and turned inside. "Discord. This pony wants to smash your face in."

"Great… Will you let me do the talking, please?" The smaller and frustrated pony pushed the other back to see the draconequus standing before the door when next he looked.

He raised an eyebrow and petted his beard. "I don't recognize you two. Who are you, again?"

"Ah…" Marble raised his hoof, all friendly and smiling. "Hello, Mister Discord. I mean… Lord of Chaos, right? Hello! I am Marble Hoof. Nice meeting you!"

When the creature simply stared critically at him the pony went on. "You see, we're here to invite Lady Fluttershy to come with us. She's needed at the Ponyville Militia Headquarters. That is all!"

Then he gave Discord his most friendly and confident smile.

The Lord of Chaos narrowed his eyes, though. At that Fluttershy appeared from the door, smiling sheepishly. She wore two robes, and the one on top seemed to conceal light barding, if Marble hoof could thrust his eyes. Over her back, her saddle had several pouches and straps with all sorts of containers and she also wore a pair of matching saddlebags.

"Fluttershy, my dear… I believe you said you would be going on a trip with your friends?" He still stared at the two militiaponies.

"Yes." She grinned awkwardly. "That is why Tree Hugger will be caring for my animals."

"Where are you going, again?" He looked at her. "Last time I saw you with this outfit, the diamond dogs had uncovered some old monster in a mine."

She simply hummed quietly. "Well, it's an adventure."

"And yet these two… Dumbbells for Brains and Smarmy Hooves, came here to take dear little Fluttershy to Ponyville… Wearing barding and with these shooting sticks ponies call pistols. Because you're needed at the militia headquarters."

The two simply nodded.

"Sounds fun!" He concluded with glee. "Let's go!"

"Discord!" The pegasus called frantically. "Wait!"

He snapped his fingers and all four of them vanished in a flash. Tree Hugger simply, calmly, closed the door.

Those of the militia that were not in condition to chase Twilight and her cohort right away returned to the headquarters, as was the standard procedure. They would care for what injuries they had suffered, nothing too serious, such as bruises, one chipped tooth, a small cut, a few mildly burnt coats and copious amounts of tutti-frutti bubblegum.

Despite his embarrassment of being rolled around inside his bubblegum casing, Grape Donut was aware that his ponies were really doing their best, even properly setting up assistance for those more injured when they arrived in the offices area, an effort Semolina, as the one that actually wasn't injured in any way, took the lead on. It felt magical to see things working like they were supposed to, for a change.

They were soon joined by his contact the bounty-hunter griffon, and his two ponies sent after Rainbow Dash. Semolina quickly went to see Candy's broken muzzle because Flight Worthy's bruise wasn't too serious. The griffon said he'd himself tend to his burnt and scrapped wing. He did go talk to the Lord Protector, though.

"Thanks for coming, Snake." The pony said, offering him a pack of ice and them going back to removing the sticky substance from his coat. "Did she give you trouble?"

"I was stupid. Underestimated her." An ointment over his wing's muscled parts alleviated some of the burn. He looked around for a few seconds. "What is the situation? The Princess seems to have hit you tough."

"We would be dead if she meant it." The pony sat on the floor with a frowny expression. "They're not out of the town yet or the ponies that chased them would be back by now… We must go… They're probably at Twilight's dry dock."

"I'll be on it as soon as I can get my wing ready to fly." The mercenary was wrapping bandages over his wing and his disposition surprised and made the pony think of how much that thing must've hurt, and he wondered where the griffon got the motivation to keep going. Oh, yeah… Sort of the problem with the militia. Right.

The door opened and a Royal Guard pegasus came in, all white and blue with his golden barding. He brought all attentions to him when he simply stood by the door. Then the Princess entered, and the ponies gasped. She was followed by Sir Chocolate Velvet, who closed the door behind her.

Ponies bowed before her and she gently responded the act with an ostensive nod of her own before she spoke. "Lord Protector, your ponies are chasing Princess Twilight to her airship. She means to escape the town."

He rubbed his hooves together, suddenly completely overwhelmed by his self-consciousness of the present situation. But before he could say anything, she continued. "The ship will take some time to power its magical engines, I am told, and your ponies can still join those who chased them and are, no doubt, attacking the airship right now, before she leaves her berth."

He swallowed his insecurity. "Yes, your highness. We'll redeploy as soon as we offered first aid to our injured."

The princess nodded, looking around at the ponies doing their best not to stare and busy themselves with getting ready to go back out there. Then Semolina came to Grape Donut with a very worried expression. Honestly, it almost scared him that she called him by his actual name.

"Grape! Candy Crush's not well… I mean, her muzzle is broken. She needs to go to the hospital and get medical help."

He frowned a little. It was very fortunate that, of all that happened, it was only their 'pretty pegasus' that had a more serious injury. He worried, though, if it would leave her with any sort of scar or deformity… She wouldn't take it well. Then he noticed the princess was near his pony. "That is gonna be a problem. The hospital is probably full of scared ponies and the odd injured in the stampede. She may have to wait."

And that made things worse, because he knew her injury should be tended to fast.

Meanwhile, Celestia approached her slowly and stared curiously. The beautiful blue pegasus sat atop one of the desks and held a wet cloth to her muzzle. She looked away from the princess, but Celestia took it as shame. Her beautiful face had a very swollen and dark colored muzzle, that also seemed a little offset to the side.

"Chocolate." The princess looked back at her knight, whose ears perked up at the mention of his name. "Her muzzle is broken. See if you can help her."

He quickly trotted up to her taking the space Celestia left for him and reached for the cloth with his magic. "Don't worry. I was a doctor before becoming a knight."

He looked at her now exposed muzzle and the pegasus shifted her eyes to Semolina, standing nearby. The latter shrugged and put on the desk a tray with first aid supplies she was carrying. Candy resigned to remaining still and let the alicorn examine her, which he did by touching her with his telekinetic magic.

"It's an incomplete fracture." He stared intently at her muzzle and she blushed a little. "I can set it in place. Now I'll cast an anesthetic spell. Hold still."

Suddenly her muzzle 'clicked back in place' and she squeaked, more in surprise than in pain. The alicorn quickly rolled up some of the bandage with some sort of ointment and placed the two rolls inside her nostrils, them covering and fixating her muzzle with more bandage on the outside. Then he stepped back.

"Try to keep it still. I'll write a note to the local doctor in the hospital… They'll give you pain medication, a healing potion, and a medical leave."

"Yes sir… Thank you."

Semolina put her hooves on the desk, staring at the pegasus and then at the Prince-Consort. "How the hell did you become a knight after becoming a doctor?"

He chuckled a bit uncomfortably. "It's a long story."

She felt it a better idea not to meddle.

Meanwhile the princess had noticed the griffon that seemed out of place in the middle of all the ponies. She smiled warmly at him. "I thought I would find you next to the Lion."

He dismissed the notion with a hand gesture. "The guy is an idiot, princess… Doesn't take a much brighter griffon to realize that he wants nothing with our species and its greatness, but with his own."

"I see. Well, I am glad to see you here, anyways."

"I met with the Lord Protector some years ago, Princess. Of course, at the time, he was a bit different. But we talked a fair bit… He wanted to learn about law enforcement and griffon fighting techniques. Today I was going through town, tracking down another griffon and we met. He asked some assistance with the situation. It felt like helping an old friend…. He grew on me when we talked some years ago."

The griffon looked around and no one seemed to be paying attention to them. "They're in a bad shape, princess."

"They are…" She agreed discreetly. "Would you be available to hire as consultant? If I remember correctly, you were good at pacification efforts during the war."

"Huh. I'll have to think on it and talk to the others, but we'll see, princess." He nodded before testing his wing. "Most likely yes, and I think I'm good. I'll talk to them and join the deployment."

The princess nodded to him and he went his way between the desks and then Chocolate joined approached her. "I'll be joining them, Celestia."

"Good luck." She smiled. "Don't be afraid to use you magic."

"So… Uh…" He started grinning awkwardly and shifting his eyes. "Could you disable Twilight's ship for me?"

"Oh my! A noble knight asking a damsel for help? What is the world coming to?" He didn't seem too pleased with her quip, so she stifled her giggling. He did have too soft a spot for her opinions of him and sometimes took jokes too seriously. "No. Getting our plan to work is more important than your ego right now."

He dropped his ears and made a sad face at her, but she didn't pay it any attention. He was like an insecure child sometimes. It was that silly 'proving himself' thing that made her wonder if he thought she didn't know how to judge character and needed him to prove something to be worth her attention. Tiresome and unalluring. "Your insecurity is also very unbecoming in a crown-sponsored knight."

She tolerated it though. It would work itself out, eventually.

And he was going to mention that Twilight had made fun of him because of the shockroach. But… Oh well.

"I'll just join them…" He said, pointing with a hoof and walked away.

The group of ponies rushed through the town, reuniting when they entered the open field of the suburban area that kept to Twilight's airship dock. One thing particularly worried Twilight: she hadn't seen Celestia since she'd left in the library. Neither had she seen any of her Royal Guards, except for Chocolate Velvet. She either had some sort of stratagem about to be deployed or she had intentionally taken a step back because of the situation with Ponyville's militia.

Either way they were likely to face the final opposition before leaving town. It even felt good that she was playing a part in dealing with this silly problem with the local militia. She just hoped that it actually worked.

It was a little weird because even if Celestia would let others do their job, she would usually lead from the front, and that made Twilight very, very anxious. The bad thing was that if she managed to learn anything about warfare, it was that if you didn't understand what your opponent was doing, then, most likely, you were being led into a situation that benefited your enemy. The really bad thing was that she had learned that from the Princess.

Fortunately, the big doors of the airship's hangar were in sight and there was no sign of problems. She looked to her side where Shining Armor was still holding onto her guard's halberd. "I think we're gonna make it! The crew said they would keep her engines running and we left all we'd need in there."

"Pinkie and I managed to bring a cart full of supplies." Applejack galloped right behind them. "It's not much, but I reckon we can manage until next stop. Wherever that might be."

It dawned on Twilight that even if they managed to leave, they would be hunted and ambushed along the way. Probably all the way to the Griffon lands, and if they were lucky, they might disappear from Celestia's immediate grasp there. If there was such a thing as escaping her grasp, but that is also where they would find themselves under threat from griffon separatists. That was, if Shining Armor was correct about all the problems in there. Maybe she could claim diplomatic protection from both sides and use her rank to reach the Lion without too much trouble. With that thought, it occurred to her that she didn't really have much of a plan. Would she arrive and simply ask if he had anything about Grigor?! It was a start, she supposed.

But, of course, they'd have to leave Ponyville first.

They reached the large wooden hangar and came in trough the side door. Went past what would be the administrative parts that Twilight never bothered with and soon reached the airship's berth. Much to Twilight's panic, she could not feel the magic energy the ship should be radiating, nor could she hear her engine's low hum.

Before she could say anything, though, the captain appeared on the railing and waved an anxious hoof at them. "Princess! Ship's engines be down."

No, really?

"What do you mean 'down'?" The crew quickly put out the access plank for their passengers and the captain met them on the deck.

"A pony sneaked 'board and shut'em off!" He said. "Looked a Royal Guard! Got 'way too!"

"Great…" She growled with her ears folded back while Spike hurried, taking Miss Calcite and Flurry Heart to the more protected cabin and the others hurried to other places in the deck, generally looking around with anxious faces.

It had probably been Crucible Wings. Figures the Princess would try to do something about the militia but wouldn't leave it all in their hooves. "How long?"

"Couple minutes!"

"All right. It will be fine!" She massaged her forehead. "And we're still missing Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy! Tell your crew to arm themselves, Captain. We may have to defend the ship in the dock. And don't wait for anything: as soon as she's ready to go, go!"

"Aye, highness."

The pegasus hurried to his place at the wheel where he could communicate with the ponies working in the lower deck. Suddenly she remembered something important. "Oh my gosh! The letter!"

She flew and rushed past ponies and the doors into the cabin where Spike was with the baby and the maid, straight to the place between her desk and cabinet where the briefcase with the letter was. Seeing it was not enough: she opened it and there was the letter, still safely preserved in enchanted crystal sheets.

She breathed a little easier. Crucible probably didn't know to steal the letter. Had he done that; her mission would be needlessly more complicated. And, she was about to relax when Starlight called for her. She left the briefcase and rushed out to the railings to see her friend standing in the entryway to the empty administrative area.

"Twilight! They're here!" She waved her hoof about in the general direction of Ponyville. "They're here!"

The princess flapped her wings and placed herself hovering over the deck. "Pinkie! AJ! Barricade the side door! Rarity, help us hold the main doors!"

She waved at Starlight to help her and met the other two at the bow where all three of them charged their horns and began fortifying the door with a spell that took the form of a light purple set of chains, complete with a padlock that clicked into place.

"Hum… Won't we need to leave…" Starlight stared at Twilight. "Through there?"

"They're gonna try to kick down the door! This way we'll, at least, hold them long enough to get the ship ready to leave."

"If you say so…" The other didn't seem too convinced and Rarity stared at the thing worryingly, but Twilight didn't have time to reply.

There was a blast outside and a several musket shots. She flew down to the ground level and stopped at the sound of another blast and saw both ponies, Pinkie and Applejack, coming towards her. "What the hay?"

"They have grenades!" The pink one held Twilight by her barding. "Grenades!"

"Suppose they're a mite angry." The other stood next to Pinkie and Twilight pointed at the ship with a hoof.

"Get onboard! We'll defend her from the deck! The armory has muskets and pistols!" She flew up again while the two rushed by the access plank, that was later recovered by the crewponies. "Capitan! We have to go!"

"Not yet!" He had his hooves on the wheel, but the ship was as dead as a piece of junk.

"Twilight! Get down!" Something pulled her hindleg down and a bullet whistled past her. Two of the militia ponies stood by the door that led to the administrative section, their squadmates gave them new, loaded muskets from behind cover and Shining Armor reinforced the ship's railing with this personal shield spell, taking place behind it with both of Twilight's Royal Guards, all three of them with muskets from the ship's armory. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity joined.

"Don't shoot yet." He said. "Let them charge first."

Two more shots exploded harmlessly in the shielded railing and four others of the militia ponies broke windows in the offices and took positions by the low walls, suddenly putting the ship under near constant salvos of musket fire. Ponies dropped to the deck and kept low.

"They're just wasting magic bullets…" White Leaf held her musket in her legs and her back to the shielded railing.

"It has just occurred to me that they're wasting taxpayer money." Applejack complained next to them with an angry frown.

"Well, Darling… Technically, we are all are stealing taxpayer money by using our barding and weapons against the Crown…" Rarity held her pistols next to her, by the orange pony's side.

"Didn't Twilight buy this ship with taxpayer money too?" Pinkie added

"All I know is that I pay taxes all the time in my farm."

"Girls… This is not the time!" Twilight yelled over the racket the muskets created.

"Convenient, isn't it?" Pinkie glowered at her and the princess rolled her eyes.

Suddenly a rainbow trail fell from the ceiling and Rainbow Dash was crouching next to them, with the casing for her barding and weapons on her back. "Hey guys."

"Why aren't you wearing your barding?" Twilight stared at her and the pegasus shrugged.

"Had some trouble along the way."

"Did you see Fluttershy?!"

"Nope!" The pegasus shook her head. "But I came in through the roof hatch and I saw a bunch of ponies coming this way, I think they might be the whole militia, including a mean griffon bounty hunter."

"Watch out!" The captain called from the improvised battlements and as if on cue, something exploded on the ship's hull, something else exploded in the air and, finally, a small green, fizzling ball fell on the deck.

Ponies screamed and jumped out of the way as far as possible, but Shining Armor's horn ignited and formed a small shield around the object. When it exploded, it did so with a dull thud.

Immediately, the unicorn grimaced and took a hoof to the side of his head. "Magical concussion grenade… They're not issued to local militias. Only the Royal Guard uses them."

The cacophony of musket fire continued, and the smell of powder bothered them very much, but Shinning raised his head just enough to look, while Rainbow stood low with the others.

"Just how many loaded muskets do these guys have?" She asked angrily.

"They're probably shooting pistols too. And reloading them at the same time." The orange pony pushed her Stetson back into place. "They might not know the ship can be restarted, or something. If they did, they would already have tried to rush aboard."

Shining Armor returned to their midst, down on the deck. "It's Prince Charming."

Rainbow poked him in the shoulder with a dirty smirk. "You know you used to be 'Prince Charming', doncha?"

"Absolutely, Rainbow Crash." His riposte came as fast as was expected from a Royal Guard.

"They called him 'Princess Bait' in the Academy." Twilight giggled with the others. "Hey, is it true Princess Celestia got you to her bedroom in the graduation?"

"What the hay!" He cried. "Of course not!"

Twlight smirked mischievously. "They say it was motivational."

White Leaf shook her head. "The story goes, actually, that it was more of a _Jus Primae Noctis_ thing at the wedding."

"Who have you guys been talking to?! This is nuts!" He cried.

Another volley of grenades exploded, this time none over the railings, but it cut short the conversation. Ponies flattened against the flooring and Rarity wailed at them. "Focus, please!".

Suddenly a hook caught on the railing. Shining Armor took the musket in his telekinesis and raised to shoot it, followed by the two other royal guards and friends, but they were surprised by a volley of small grenades. Ponies screamed again and Twilight protected her friends with a shield while the captain protected the two guards with his.

Next two ponies jumped aboard, they wore the militia leather barding and carried pistols in their mouths. Rarity, the closest, shot the first with one of her pistols and wacked the other in the head with the side of her rapier. Both were rendered stunned or unconscious and she took a step back, while re-holstering her pistol (with a spinning flourish) and taking stock of the situation. Other ponies were boarding the ship from other points and her friends rushed to defend the deck. She saw herself alone against a big gray earth pony who didn't think twice and swung his magical shock baton at her exposed head.

He was so slow Rarity simply took a step to the side and promptly smacked his face too with her rapier and he was out in one hit. She looked at her weapon and whined, though. "I swear Stark Aria is beginning to bend with all this improper use."

"It's an enchanted sword, Rarity." Twilight tied the four legs of one of the assailants with a spell before turning to Rarity with an annoyed expression. "It doesn't bend."

By the ship's bow Pinkie quickly pushed a climbing pony off the railing with the butt of her firearm and Applejack shot her musket at another. Then three magical projectiles exploded next to them and sent both ponies flying back, but also knocked their muskets to who knew where. They quickly got to their hooves again, and found themselves standing near the huge brown alicorn that jumped over the railing wearing his golden armor, complete with chained mail over his head and neck, a vicious looking cap over his horn and his white robes over the plated armor and fully plated leggings. He held a kite shield, white with the crest of the Royal House on it and a longsword, all shinny white, with a blue crossguard. It all weighted so much Applejack could swear she felt the floor tremble.

"Whoa, Nelly!" She cried, barely dodging a swing of his sword. "Twilight! Shining! Help!"

Pinkie produced a few small black balls from the pouches in her barding and cheerfully threw them at Chocolate Velvet. They exploded harmlessly on his armor but staggered him back and he lost the tempo of the use of his sword and shield. In the same moment, Applejack stood on her hindlegs and drew the firearm from her barding, a lever-triggered revolver. Black with mother of pearl handle adorned with her cutie mark, and with a golden lever. She held with her hoof bent over her cannon, pulling the lever while she pulled the hammer with the other hoof, shooting a salvo of five magic bullets straight at his chest, neck and head.

He sat and shook his head a couple of times. Shinning came out of nowhere with the telekinetically held halberd and thrust its butt at his chest, but the alicorn caught it with his shield and deflected it to the side. The captain was open for a riposte and his sword in position. But he caught himself, not willing to actually injure his friend with a thrust of his sword. Hitting someone with the flat of the blade was bad enough, and if he struck with the edge, he might even kill him. A thrust would be a death sentence.

Then Twilight flew from the other side, away from his eyes that focused on her brother, and thrust her scepter at him with a force spell, sending him flying across the deck. He fell flat on his back, lost his sword and shield, and barely rolled out of the way when Twilight flew above and shot several magic projectiles at him. Her horn shone, as did the gems in her Element of Magic, filling the poorly lit hangar with purple magical light. Despite missing him, the small missiles dented the deck's flooring.

He jumped and righted himself with his huge wings and was the last in the ship, except for the gray griffon flying overhead shooting his revolver at Pinkie Pie and hitting her on the forehead. A small light shone where the magical bullet hit, but she never felt it's effects.

"What?" She looked around, confused.

"Be careful, Pinkie!" Applejack started next to her.

The griffon banked his flight to the side and dodged shots from the ship's crew, aiming his revolver and shooting at Shining Armor, who didn't wear any barding with hard to penetrate shielding enchantments, but the bullet stopped at a magical barrier of his own making.

Twilight rushed past her brother. "Rainbow! Get him!"

There was just no avoiding the pegasus. She took off too fast, flew too fast and tackled him too fast. He did however manage to grapple with her midflight, and landed a punch on her belly, grabbed one of her front legs about to immobilize her, but she spun around and they hit the hangar's wall with his back and her weight against him. Fortunately for him, she wasn't very heavy.

He never saw the spinning kick she landed on his face and that sent him against the wall again, though.

In the deck, the alicorn raised a pure, flat amber magical shield against a volley of musket balls fired his way. Apparently, a huge alicorn in golden barding drew a lot of attention. He looked for his sword but couldn't find it. Twilight rushed low, under his shield wall, with her wings open, dragging her cape and robes, and swung a sword at his feet. The thing gleamed over the reflective floor of the ship with a purple light and whistled through the air almost too quick for him to react. He kicked at the sword and deflected it away with his armored shin. Sparks flew and the thing dented his armor, but he reared over her, shooting an amber magical beam at her.

She would have giggled at it if she had had the time. Instead she deflected it with her horn and threw it back at him. Hit in the chest he staggered, and then she and blast him with her own magic beam. Hit squarely in the chest again he flew backwards and fell on his back through the wall of the administrative section and next to a group of tired militiaponies.

He sighed loudly laying on his back. "Don't be afraid to use your magic, she said…"

He caught sight of Grape Donut yelling at his ponies to stand up and assault the ship again but didn't have time to watch. He stood and jumped through the hole in the wall, then jumping and flapping his wings to reach the ship again.

Starlight saw him and grimaced, shooting magic out of her horn in a reflex, he tried one of the techniques Celestia and Luna had taught him, blocking with a wing, spiraling and changing direction, but her magic still connected and closed him on a pink bubble that caused him to crash in the main mast in an awkward way with his neck.

She squeaked, but soon saw he was fine and turned to fight a new wave of attacks by the militiaponies coming up the ship's berth and jumping at the railing by the aft. "They don't give up!"

Twilight looked at the alicorn to be sure he would try anything too soon and he was stunned, but indeed, their assailants didn't seem to give up already. Applejack still resorted to fighting mostly hoof to hoof next to Pinkie who… What the hay was she doing with that rubber chicken?! Though it really shouldn't at that point, it baffled her that Pinkie managed to knock out one of the militia's ponies with a rubber chicken!

Rarity seemed to be leading a group of the crewponies holding the ship's wheel and her two guards had placed themselves on the access to the lower decks. Shining Armor wrestled one pony's baton out of her grasp by the bow. And then, hit her with it.

Rainbow was fighting hoof to claw the griffon on main mast's rigging. She couldn't believe the balance they had, but that was an intrusive thought. She worried at the realization that she and her friends were used to fighting monsters that they felled with one or two strikes of their rather deadly weapons. Not to mention that Applejack had a few bruises and cuts, meaning her barding's magical shielding was beginning to fail. She was tiring and her own magic couldn't power her barding's. They weren't used to protracted fights like this one and were also using their weapons in an awkward way. They had to win this soon or they would be too tired to defend themselves.

Then, Chocolate Velvet stood and found his sword. She grinned at him. "Nice sword. Did you name it?"

He frowned under his chainmail. "You know very well I can't name an ordinary sword, Twilight; and you know I don't have the rank to use an enchanted weapon. You're being a jerk today, you know that?"

She giggled to herself. It was so easy to get under his skin. He swung his sword at her, and she batted it away to the side with hers, while she also tried to grab his away from his telekinetic grasp, but he shifted his body with the sword to keep it close enough to keep it under his grasp.

"Sorry. I also don't have a shockroach for you in the ship." She couldn't see his face under the mail, but his eyes said enough of how angry that got him. He swung his sword heavily at her but missed when she stepped to the side and then thrust at him with her scepter.

He almost fell again but flapped his wings and charged his horn. His sword swung at her from afar under a particularly strong telekinetic grasp. It was in that moment that Discord appeared out of a bright flash next to Fluttershy and the two militia ponies.

Ponies gasped in horror at the sight of his sword stuck trespassing Discord's head. Rarity fainted next to the captain, who held her. Twilight shrieked covering her eyes with her wings and ponies simply stopped fighting, staring with varying degrees of disbelief.

"You know, this actually does hurt." Discord said in a flat tone with the sword sticking harmlessly, and rather comically out of his face.

The alicorn shrieked. "I swear I didn't mean it! I was aiming at Twilight!"

"You wanted to hit my friend with a sword?"

"No!" He shrieked again. "I mean yes! But it's not like that!"

"Do you… Hum… Need any help, Discord?" His yellow pegasus friend asked from below.

"No, Fluttershy, thank you. Twilight, what did you do? Why are you ponies trying to kill each other all of a sudden?"

"Aaaah…" She said as nervously as her eyes shifted to the side. "It's complicated."

"Wait a second!" The obese Lord Protector of the town raised a hoof, next to Applejack and a couple ponies of either side. "Can I order lord Discord's arrest? Or is he kind of out of my jurisdiction?"

Applejack laughed. "It would be fun to see you try."

"Anyway…" Grape Donut went on. "Which side are you on?"

"Well, I suppose I'm not on the side poking me with a metal stick." He pulled the sword out with a pop and made it vanish. "Which side am I on, Fluttershy?"

"Oh, Twilight's side, Discord." She cheered a little.

As if on cue, the airship's engines resumed their low hum and flooded the area with their magical radiation.

The princess grinned. "Get them off the ship, Discord!"

He summoned a pirate's bicorn hat, an eyepatch and held a hook with his left hand. "Aaar. It's the plank for ye, ponies!"

"Nonsense! "We're still on the fight!" Grape yelled angrily only to notice his ponies and griffon friend sitting on the ship's berth. "Come on!"

"There are not enough Bits in Equestria to make me fight Discord." The griffon said. "Sorry, Grape."

"Ah, whatever." The fat pony walked with heavy, angry steps and jumped off the ship, leaving only the chocolate colored alicorn near the bow. He rubbed his hooves together and lowered his ears meekly.

"Can I have my sword back?"

"No."

"But…"

"OUT!"

Discord didn't need to yell again, especially not with the fire and brimstone. He jumped off the ship in a heartbeat.

"Alright then!" Twilight grinned and directed her magic towards the seal they created over the main doors, effortlessly dispelled it and opened wide the doors. Looked around, making sure all who should be on the ship were indeed. Rainbow had a few red scratches but seemed perfectly fine. Satisfied, she pointed a hoof at the captain.

He was still holding Rarity, with her flirty eyes and giggling at him. Twilight didn't feel like telling him to 'punch it' anymore.

"Can we go, please?" She pleaded.

The pegasus let her friend be and resumed his post by the wheel. "Right'way Princess!"

The magical engines roared, and the ship almost immediately overcame inertia, accelerating towards the open doors. From the railings, Twilight saw the ponies from the militia, sitting on the boardwalk of the dry dock, next to the griffon and next to Chocolate Velvet. The ponies looked angry. They stared at her ship in the same way a defeated hoofball team would look at the winners. The griffon looked professionally devoid of outward expressions of his feelings. It probably was just a job that went south for him. Chocolate Velvet, though, looked both humiliated and angry. She knew it was a dangerous combination and it surprised her because she hadn't seen it in him before.

In all the months he lived with the princesses and routinely met with her, he always took the little jokes and quips in stride and laughed with them. In fact, he quite reminded him of his brother, in all the best ways. He was proud in his place and she could see what the Princess saw in him: a kind heart, a sense of duty and of honor, a love for the knightly ways that struck Celestia's romantic vein.

She never wanted to hurt his feelings. When had that happened?

She smiled awkwardly, trying to look friendly and did her best to cheer him up. "Don't worry Velvet! It will work out for you, eventually!"

She didn't have much time, anyway, to worry about him. The ship was departing, she had Discord onboard her airship and still needed to figure out her investigation.

The ship hovered a few inches above the ground, accelerating fast. A few Militiaponies, some four of them looking to enter the hangar by the now opened doors jumped out of the way, and others came from inside shooting at the hull to no effect.

"Whooee! We did it!" Applejack cried and ponies celebrated all over the deck, jumping and bumping hooves as the airship started gaining altitude over the city.

"Where to, princess?" The pegasus captain asked with a bright grin on his face, behind the wheel.

Twilight thought for a second. "Cadance can catch up to us. So, uh…"

She ran up to the bow's railing and looked around with her heel over her eyes. "Manehattan! We should avoid Canterlot's proximity, though. So, keep us straight, a little to the right for now."

His expression turned sour. "That not how ye call a maneuver, lass."

"Oh. Excuse me!" She looked back, with her legs on the railings. "I thought that it you job to speak 'fancy shipish'!"

The other ponies laughed around the deck, punctuating the good vibration at their victory. Things seemed much more relaxed now, with the ship several hooves above the town, flying at a comfortable speed for agile maneuvering, should it be needed.

Inside the empty hangar, ponies gathered their magical subduing batons, pistols and muskets, left to the side during the fight or dropped one of the many times the princess' friends had beat them into submission. The air smelled of burnt powder and a few curious ponies started showing up, staring from outside the large doors.

"I'm actually proud of you guys…" Grape Donut's voice called his ponies' attentions to him. He was a bit sad, a bit proud, indeed, but mostly, he was satisfied. "We actually did our best."

"They kicked our flanks, chief." The lanky brown earth pony said casually. "Gee… I think Captain Armor wiped the floor with me three times today."

The others laughed. It was a low, unenergetic laugh that died abruptly, but it was a laugh.

"It wasn't a fair fight." The griffon swatted the dirt off his armor. The bandage in his wing was filthy with dirt. "The Princess and her friends are formidable opponents on their own right, Captain Armor is probably the best knight of the Royal House and Discord… Well… There was nothing to do. If he hadn't shown up, we might have won. They were getting tired and making mistakes."

To Chocolate it didn't look like they were making mistakes, it only looked like they had kicked their flanks, period. And made fun of them, in his case.

He stared at the griffon with his back to him. What exactly was that feeling? Was it anger? Frustration? Disappointment? Probably a combination of those. Did Celestia tell the griffon to say those things to these ponies? What was the point of it? They still got beaten. Maybe it was a 'pony thing' he didn't entirely understand yet.

Though, he kind of did. These ponies felt useful again, even if they lost. That was the point of that whole theater he put in front of the town. They were doing what they were supposed to do. It seemed that their head weren't very complicated. Well, he was doing what he was supposed to be doing too, but he didn`t feel satisfied, proud or even sad.

That feeling was betrayal.

Be got beaten, and it was not a fair fight. He didn`t have a chance. Like these ponies, did she know that he couldn't ever capture Twilight? Had she manipulated him? Yes, that was it. It did feel a bit like she had toyed with his feelings to get him to do what she wanted.

Something flipped in his head and it didn't seem anymore like Twilight was teasing him anymore. Like a friend. No, she was making fun of him. Suddenly it seemed like, all those months, he had been lying to himself that he was beloved and not the proverbial third wheel. It occurred to him that she wasn't being friendly, and neither were all of them.

Did she, by the way, even like him? She and her sister covered him in gold and silver and in caresses. Now it felt like it was it only to parade him about like an accessory, the incompetent knight that looks nice.

They praised his noble heart and his desire to serve. Celestia said he'd be her own royal knight. She said she made him for her. It suddenly felt like all of them were making fun of him. That they told him what he wanted to hear. When did his memories of Celestia's angelic laughter turn to mocking cackle?

Did he even stand a chance at his mission? Sure, 'the plan' worked. But why did she say that she would reward him with he managed to capture Twilight? For how long had she laughed at his innocence after he left?

Well, could he capture Twilight? He had to know. It seemed like a lot hung on it now.

A sword lay on the dirt floor under the ship's berth. Where did that sword come from? It wasn't a fancy one: a sword, dropped at the dirt floor under the ship's berth. She wasn't his expensive… 'Unnamed, unenchanted, boring longsword', but it was a sword. A well-maintained, properly oiled, arming sword that probably belonged to one of Twilight's ponies and probably wouldn't be missed.

He couldn't remember ever pouring so much purpose and letting so many feelings drain into his magic. It probably made his aura shine a bit too brightly, and that was why the griffon saw seen when he reached for it with his magical grasp. They stared at each other and the griffon nodded at him. He nodded back at the griffon.

What went through the griffon's head? Discord still likely was on that ship. Those ponies that showed them who's boss would still be there. Why did he decide he'd come with him?

Both galloped through the large hangar doors and the prince removed the chainmail cowl of his armor, leaving it behind when they jumped. Their mighty wings flapped, and they gained speed and altitude. He didn't care Discord was on the ship, that Shining Armor was on the ship. He was going to complete his mission, or he would drag that damn ship down with him to the pits of Hell.

Rarity approached Twilight while the ship turned, slightly banking towards port side, but not enough to threaten any pony's balance. "Twilight, I wanted White Leaf and Raspberry Pancakes to stay in Ponyville. I wished for them to keep watch over my family. I was quite worried with the way those ponies treated me… I fear they might try to… Retaliate."

Twilight shook her head. "I don't think it should be a problem, Rarity."

"The Princess is in Ponyville and she's likely to sort the whole situation." Then she put a hoof on her chin. "Actually, that might even buy us some additional time. But, regardless… I don't think that our friends are in any sort of danger, Rarity."

"Well, if you say so, Twilight. I do hope that you are right. Sweetie Belle is too innocent to deal with some sorts of ruffians."

"Don't you worry, Rarity!" Applejack joined then. "The Apples are there and they'll lend a hoof if yours have need of it."

A claw tipped finger touched the princess' shoulder and she turned to see Discord. Their old foe turned beloved friend. The Sprit of Chaos. Emperor Grigor's Mad God. The one Chrysalis said had driven ponies insane and brought the world to the edge of destruction.

He was right there!

"Mind telling me what is going on, Twilight?" He had his arms open and his voice sounded frustrated. "This flying thing of yours is giving me a headache."

But before she could say anything, they heard one of the pegasi keeping watch on the deck. "All hooves hoay! We got flyers astern low!"

The ponies and draconequus gathered in the back of the ship and stared at the brown alicorn and the gray griffon. The former furiously flapped his wings and gained ground on the airship, carrying a sword in his magic and galloping in the air like he was possessed. He climbed above and behind the ship while the griffon maneuvered to approach from above too, but from the other side and drew his revolver musket.

"How fast are they actually flying?" Applejack asked Twilight, but she was simply watching worryingly. Had Celestia been there, she would've said Twilight was 'doing her thing'. Understanding the problem.

The armored alicorn closed the distance and charged his horn, willing his magic power into the blade, along with all the shame and humiliation. An angry scowl in his face and a raging grimace along with a fiery determination. His magic propelled the sword with a shout of pure fury and the blade ripped through the air like a shot from a ballista in blazing amber magic.

Present passengers watched with huge eyes and expectant expressions as the weapon drew closer and closer to the airship. It flew straight and proper, like inevitable destiny.

It plinked in the housing for the central engine of the starboard wing and dropped like a rock.

Faces turned to disappointment.

"Lame." Said Pinkie. "Pfft… Get on our level!"

"I don't get what the princess sees in him." Rainbow added with a bored expression.

"We'll, he is very persistent." Rarity offered.

"He's too dumb to give up, is what he is." Applejack concluded and turned around.

"He does look handsome." Fluttershy said hopefully.

Discord snapped his fingers and a comically large anvil was tied to Chocolate's neck and pulled him down screaming.

Twilight stared from the railing while he fell with his wings bent upward and the griffon dove after him. She understood what was wrong, but this time there was no chance to try and fix it… A simple talk might suffice, but Royal Guard airships might soon close in pursuit or Princess Celestia herself could show up. Or Discord might decide to leave.

"Don't worry, Twilight. He's tougher than he looks." Her brother said next to her. And she knew that, but she didn't know if Chocolate Velvet knew that. Or even if Shining understood her thoughts.

It was so unfair… She was so happy for helping those ponies and her friend was out of her reach.

The Princess then pushed it all out of her head and turned to the "Mad God". "Discord, we need to talk."


	10. A Song of Ponies and Changelings

The Love Room was probably not the best name for that particular room, considering it existed within the Bordello of Candy, but it was analogous in function to a 'war room', and Cadance didn't want to name it that. So, the Love Room was the nervous center for all the 'operations' within the Bordello and 'away missions' as well as it housed Cadance's map of all ponies with relationship problems in the entire world.

If not for the powerful magic map, the room would actually amount to a bunch of ponies in desks in front of the map managing records of all the princess' ponies and their activities, the finances and supplies of the establishment, and Cadance's "Love Management Center" with its enormous archives, relationship tracking charts and the parts that were supposed to be an access to an alchemy lab, complete with classrooms, and the area reserved for the Dream Achievement Initiative, but Princess Luna refused to disclose dream her ponies could fulfil in real life. Spoilsport.

To be very honest, to this day it still amused Cadance that Princess Celestia took the whole thing as seriously as she did when she first asked for help in getting the whole place built and operational. Most ponies didn't, and maybe this was a sign that either Cadance was right and that Princess Celestia was the so-called Illuminated Despot ponies, as referred to the old leaders that actually did invest in the betterment of their magical and societal knowledge.

Or maybe she just wanted to let Cadance follow her talents? Princess Celestia often did things Cadance didn't understand. She supposed one time too many.

Regardless, her map allowed her to locate any couples having trouble in their relationship, but also allowed her to track ponies she's personally known by means of colored blips and their cutie marks or symbols that represented them. She could see Princess Luna in her palace, but not Queen Chrysalis. She could see Princess Celestia in Ponyville and Chocolate Velvet, a few miles away from her chasing Twilight in her airship, Cadance supposed, which was represented by Twiligth's cutie mark.

She sat in front of the large table, on her crystal highchair, adorned in gold and with her cutie mark high up high, and was brought out of her thoughts by one of her ponies, a handsome light-blue and salmon, with pretty green wyes, crystal pony called Azurite. He wore a few traditional decorative collars with scales of shinny gemstones and called her attention hum-humming politely next to her, on the side of the table.

"Princess, I have the reports from the interrogations of the Lunar Guards and of the changelings." He showed her a few sheets of parchment on his mouth and laid them on the table. "We have names, registration numbers and ranks from the Lunar Guards and have also confirmed that they came accompanying Princess Luna. Her entire guard is here, which makes sense, since her goal was to spread her guard though the town and to keep our local Royal Guards under watch in the barracks."

The princess paid attention, so he proceeded. "The changelings gave us no information and wouldn't buckle under any offers or promises, and… Well, your highness knows we can't really threaten them."

Cadance kept to her thoughts and raised her eyebrow at the ideas she had inside her head on how to make them talk, but she wouldn't do any of those things.

"We did manage to learn one thing about the Changelings, through the Lunar Guards, though." With her attention again, he kept going. "It seems Chrysalis wasn't supposed to be here, but after talking to the princesses in Canterlot, she decided to stick with Luna. There seems to be something wrong with her guards and princess Luna isn't happy about it. She also brought all of them, along with several 'normal' black-carapace changelings. Most importantly, the changelings have occupied the palace."

Cadance's mood plummeted. It was almost like the two were cheating against her, teleporting entire companies along with them.

Not to mention that none of that was a particularly huge help and it frustrated her. It seemed that Luna, not being an idiot knew exactly what Cadance wanted coming home. With her guards in the streets, she couldn't seek help from the vast majority of her subjects and with Chrysalis' changelings in the palace, she couldn't simply sneak in, grab what she wanted and teleport away. Maybe she could deal with the changelings, but as soon as she tried anything, Luna and Chrysalis were sure to show up. A fight was just not the way to deal with this.

She wanted to talk personally to those changelings and try to understand more about them, as she had a very strong feeling that there was something wrong with them, but more than that, they might be the fruit of some very shady business between the Queen and The Sisters. She had a feeling, and it might just be because of the whole legend surrounding Chrysalis that it might have a connection to whatever happened in the past.

She also worried for her fillies and colts around the city. She didn't think that Luna's guards would hurt them, but she couldn't be sure about Chrysalis'. Lighting her horn and interacting with the map magically, she located all of them throughout the city, sneaking around and returning with the locations for the roadblocks. Maybe with the full picture in front of her, she might find a gap in Luna's setup and exploit it to, at least reach the palace.

Then one of her said fillies entered the room, wearing her outdoors cape and carrying her bow and arrows on her back. "Princess! Princess Luna and Queen Chrysalis are coming here! They figured out you're likely hiding here!"

Well, it wasn't a particularly well-hidden secret anyway… She tapped her chin with a hoof. If she played it right, she could use this to her advantage. A smile appeared on her muzzle and the idea of a conversation seemed more approachable than an open fight. They would be on her home field, surrounded by her supporters… She wished she could appeal to their base desires but knew that wasn't likely to work on Luna in that situation, however that didn't mean she couldn't use her charms and talents to help her!

Chrysalis was just happy that Cadance had a suitable coach. She was afraid she'd be forced to change to another form just so that she'd fit or that she would have to face the cold outside and walk to their destination; but apparently, the princess was ready for visits from the others. Celestia would need a big one when she visited, after all, and heavens forbid Celestia would have to walk.

Or herself. Queen Chrysalis was above walking, much less in that freezing cold.

Anyways, they had decided that it would be a better strategy if Chrysalis left her soldiers, both the Praetorians and the regular military caste changelings in the palace in case Cadance tried to sneak around them.

Another thing on her mind was the realization that she'd been putting resources on that research of hers with the Praetorians. While ponies had coaches with magical internal heating, the Rock barely had a ventilation system worth noting, and was pretty much used by her Spawning Pool. And then her bedchamber was like a personal palace. In a way, she was a bit conscious of the fact that she was hogging resources for her use. Even if she could say that the Spawning Pool benefited all the Swarm.

Did she really need her dissected statues? Her archeological artifacts and fancy weapon displays? Her piano? Her giant bed? Maybe she could put those things for sale?

Preposterous… It was her due as the Queen. The Princesses too had all sorts of comforts. Heck… Celestia and Luna literally had a hoof-made consort to them, complete with a cure for their inability to bear children. It was curious though, that Cadance didn't need any of that to bear Flurry Heart. For starters, Shining Armor was a normal unicorn stallion. Sure, as normal as one of those 'Sparkles' were, but still…

It wasn't only that. The ponies had a wealth of small magical comforts her changelings didn't. Maybe she should have swallowed her pride sooner and looked for some friendship, for a change. She felt silly: at the time she feared Celestia would force her to sell her treasures to help with the Swarm's financial situation. It hadn't even occurred to her that Thorax might already even had liquidated everything while she was away.

In the end, they have all been so nice to her. Ironic that she'd ended up putting resources on The Sister's project along with her little secret of the Prateorians. It's a shame it ended up turning out a mess. Maybe she could salvage the Praetorians and make them more viable.

She stared downward, consumed by her thoughts before her eyes shifted up to Luna. Each sat on one of the two long seats, with the alicorn on the back one. On each side were the closed doors and windows that showed the city's empty streets.

Luna's guards pulled the coach at a steady pace with their clip-clopping filtering through the windows, as if they were used to it and it also dawned on the queen that she didn't have any sort of carriage to use like that. At the same time, she doubted her soldiers would pull her around with the same sort of proud Luna's ones did. Maybe her Praetorians… But it's not like they'd have a choice anyways.

"Luna?" She looked at the other and her voice was soft.

"Hum?" The princess kept staring through the window.

"I'm sorry." The queen's eyes shifted, despite Luna never looking at her. "I shouldn't have tried to intimidate you."

"No, you're not." The blue alicorn seemed barely interested. "You're upset you didn't have it your way."

The queen didn't answer right away but her voice and expression turned sour. "You sound like Celestia."

"We're both experienced in dealing with spoiled children and nobles." The other replied casually, almost as though she wasn't paying attention to the conversation.

Chrysalis scowled and raised her voice. "That was completely unnecessary!"

Luna then giggled and smiled at the queen. "You're doing fine, Chrysalis. Next, you'll try to do better because you'll feel ashamed that you 'fell'. Then you'll proudly behave. Eventually you'll see an opportunity and you'll try to exploit it to get ahead, thinking that you'll get away with it without getting caught. Then, when you do get caught, you'll feel upset you didn't have it your way, will catch yourself at that and will be ashamed again and will try to do better."

The princess smiled ever slightly more softly. "It doesn't end."

"I guess… That's living…" The queen concluded and the other agreed with a soft nod. "I suppose you know me more than I'd like to admit."

"It's how children behave." Luna smiled mischievously and the queen growled loudly but didn't reply. Luna actually was right, after all.

"You understand me, don't you?" The queen flashed her a conspiratorial grin. "Maybe I should be consulting with you instead of Celestia."

"Good try." Luna gave her a knowing grin. "But that is not how it works. You'll be lucky you don't get sent to Twilight's School of Friendship after this stunt."

Chrysalis shuddered at the thought.

"Though, I have to admit… In your place I might have done something similar. You did figure out something you weren't supposed to." Hearing that, the black one felt a small amber of pride in her chest, but then Luna added more. "Celestia will be furious though. You did something that borders on the darkest of necromancy and she abhors that. You're lucky it was completely unintentional. You also caused them much more pain than any creature should ever have to bear. You'll answer for that."

"Well, it was kind of Celestia's fault!" Chrysalis defended herself.

"No, it wasn't!" Luna was completely amused by the idea. "You were doing something that you shouldn't. Then you tried to hide it, even when you realized that something was very wrong, until you thought that you could use it for your gain."

The queen didn't answer.

"We can fix this, Chrysalis." Luna added. "It is your responsibility, but you don't have to deal with it alone. At least now that you opened up about it."

Chrysalis frowned. "I just…"

"I know. You're afraid of the Lion. Deep inside, you want to protect your children from him." The princess nodded understandingly, interrupting her softly. "Most of the smart creatures aren't amused by the whole circus the griffons have raised in the Senate and are afraid. Don't kick yourself too hard."

"You're not doing anything!" She practically accused Luna. It was a weird feeling and, once again, lost between emotions she was not used to have boiling in her chest, she went with the easier one: anger. "You're both worried about some pet project of yours. And now there's Twilight and Cadance running around with that asinine research of theirs and the whole house of cards that is ready to collapse on you two! It's the last thing we needed!"

Luna's eyebrow rose. "You're the one that sent them to the Lion."

"I had to tell them something that they wouldn't recognize as deceiving!" She raised her black hooves in frustration. "Trust me. I know lying."

"We are doing something about it, Chrysalis." Luna remained calm. "Several things, in fact. Our navy is being renovated for airships, as we know the Lion has an airfleet of his own. Celestia has recalled a very good officer to command our new flying armada. She has been transferring assets to regions surrounding the griffon lands and to our loyal provinces within. I have been visiting the dreams of key individuals, and it is no coincidence one of Twilight's students is brother to the Lion. What is more, Celestia has shifted the classes in her school towards the politics of war and peaceful coexistence. She's been stimulating Queen Novo to make acquaintances with him, so that she may influence him, and she has been openly condemning the Lion's main source of support: the corrupt leadership of the griffons. You may not see it, but Celestia has all of Equestria just short of mobilizing against the Lion. He won't be able to move out of Snow Mountains for more than a week before his forces are annihilated if it comes to a war."

"But she'll allow him to become king." She spat back.

"The griffons are entitled to choose their own leaders, Chrysalis." Luna remained calm. "It is one of the bases of our system. It would fall apart if citizens couldn't choose representatives to sit in the House of Chosen and if their leaders, elected or inherited, couldn't sit in the House of Majesty. Our relationship with them is one of respect. They trust Celestia's leadership. Her wisdom, and in return we must respect their choices. Not to mention that Celestia believes the Lion may turn out to be a good ruler for the griffons. Even if he hates us, he may learn to coexist when his supporters realize that we are willing to compromise."

"I suppose ruling an entire world is a bit more complex than a rock full of bug-ponies…"

"Actually, it is just a big mess." Luna giggled. "Celestia is taking care of that… Just in her own way. She wants to avoid too much of a hassle, but also to avoid too much of a disagreement with Twilight and Cadance. Equestria needs us to be in good terms with one another. That is actually her goal… Ponies, griffons, everyone come, and they go, but if Twilight or Cadance held a grudge against us the consequences would be too much. Which is why we're here to deal with Cadance."

Then Luna frowned in annoyance. "Actually, that is why I'm here. You're just intruding."

"Oh, Luna… You wouldn't have a clue to check the obvious place where she's likely hiding with her little guerrillas. Not to mention, you have a tendency of speaking too much and not even noticing." She finished with a venomous grin that Luna didn't completely understand. But it lost importance when they retreated back into their thoughts.

Silence followed again and the two of them retreated inside their own heads, which bothered Chrysalis because it gave her the time for introspection. She frowned and her eyes shifted from one side and the other until she finally looked at Luna again. "I shouldn't have made them…"

Luna nodded softly. "I'm not sure you understand the depth of what you did, Chrysalis. You mentioned disposing of them as though they were broken possessions."

For some reason she couldn't completely understand, hearing that greatly upset her. It started with a feeling of annoyance, but it grew until it became regret and, finally, a strange hopelessness when the depth of what she did hit her with its full force. Her eyes burned and her mouth trembled a bit, but the worst of all was the tightness in her throat. Her eyes closed tightly, and she soon found herself strangling a sob, like a dagger of regret someone punctured her throat with.

"Chrysalis?" Luna called her softly, worriedly.

"They were in pain… I know I shouldn't have done it, but it was done, and I had to deal with it… And it only got worse."

"That is why we don't deal with these things Chrysalis. Do they have memories of 'past versions'?" Luna asked and the queen shook her head slightly.

"Not on the conscious level, at least. They look up to me, and I don't think that they would if they did." Her voice trembled a bit with the very pungent memory of the joke she made about the laboratory on fire and wondered to herself how could she have been so callous to joke when she had done all that to her… Children? "They call me mother, Luna. They love me helplessly and I made a mess of their heads and their bodies trying to make them into soldiers I could push around without a thought. And now the other changelings are afraid and have distanced even more from me. Thorax is afraid and is constantly trying to not upset me. Twilight and Cadance suspect I may be a monster"

Well, she was… Dumbass. At least Luna didn't seem to judge her. She simply listened patiently.

"I'm just doing my best. I'm trying to be like her… A good leader. But… I don't know how."

Luna shook her head softly. "Don't try to be Celestia, Chrysalis. It's impossible. Celestia is ordained to be what she is… Be a better yourself, instead. Especially because Celestia is far from perfect. Even as far as being a leader, a ruler, or commander, a sister of friend. She's done her share of dark deeds, in times of need, that were 'justified'... She's taken revenge, she's acted in anger and in prejudice. She's simply more experienced now, at avoiding certain mistakes. As I am. And as you'll be, eventually. See us as an example, but don't try to be us."

The queen listened to Luna even though she was used to be listened to. She hated these feelings and instead reminded herself of her importance to the Swarm, and how she was the most important thing, and that was why Celestia and Luna had spared her. Without her, the changelings would be condemned to spiral into oblivion. That was better… Ignore that pain and crush it down in the back of her mind, keeping it occupied with more important stuff.

"I know!" The queen shook slightly. Talking to Luna made her feel better, that things would be fine, too. "But I keep ruining things! Ponies love you two and you don't need to mess with their heads!"

Luna watched carefully how Chrysalis seemed to be feeling and her sorrow seemed to be replaced with frustration now, so she allowed herself a giggle when the queen smiled awkwardly. "Actually, you literally fix their heads! It's quite the opposite."

"Chrysalis, I know it's trite to say, but the secret is doing to then what you would like then to do for you, were your roles switched. You also don't have to undo your mistakes of the past. Do it right from now on and everything will be fine. Threat the other changelings like your subjects instead of resources… If you want them to treat you more like you're their mother, or beloved queen, give them reasons to see you as such. Eventually, you won't feel so bad you literally made the Preatorians to see you like that. You'll have earned it, at least."

"I'm trying! But it's so frustrating when most the Swarm is keeping their distance from me all they can, and at the same time the Praetorians are doing everything to make me happy even when I'm mean to them! It's so heartbreaking when Limpy is holding his hoof from the floor and is actually trying so hard to-"

"Wait!" Luna's ears perked up and her eyes went wide as a pair of plates. "You actually named one of them 'Limpy'?!"

The queen just stared at her.

"Chrysalis, you can't name them after their flaws! I thought it was just the name you gave to the archetype that overpowered them. You literally called them by those names? What were you thinking?!"

"You see?!" The queen shrieked. "I keep doing these things!"

"All right… It's fine." Luna rubbed her temples and took a few deep breaths with her eyes closed. "You'll rename them. You'll start by renaming them, and it will be fine!"

The queen simply nodded.

"I know there is Bossy, Limpy, Grumpy and Laggy. What did you name the other three?"

She kept her mouth shut for a few seconds, causing Luna to stare at her. "What did you name them, Chrysalis?"

The other one changed to a more casual and faux-relaxed posture, gesturing with a hoof along with her words. "You know I believe that it is very toxic to dwell on past mistakes. It is much more productive to focus on what lies ahead of us. Wouldn't you agree, Luna? Not to mention, we need to devise our strategy to catch Cadance if she is present at the Bordello. That is, after all, the reason we left the palace, is it not?"

"Fine then." The princess smiled smugly. The important thing was that Chrysalis understood she shouldn't have done it. "But I'll be watching you."

The Bordello of Candy was not simply a glorified brothel like Luna had imagined. It was a palace from the Era of the Two Sisters sculptured in stone and adorned with copious amounts of stained glass that housed a glorified brothel, a rowdy casino, a lewd hotel and a lascivious restaurant, all themed after the old age before The Sisters had unified all of Equestria. And she knew that only by looking at the flyer she picked at the entrance. What in Tartarus was that filly thinking?!

Apparently, it was also the headquarters for Cadance's personal guards too, but that wasn't apparent in any way from the outside or in the flyer.

It was like one of the old cathedrals of the Two Sisters ponies insisted on building throughout the earlier days of their rule, but instead of a place ponies would go to reflect on the wonders of Harmony, it was a place where ponies would go to actually do the things Luna saw on their dreams and were the reason she kept a bottle of bleach on her vanity. She only needed to figure out a way to bleach her brain that didn't hurt.

In the cold night, it was covered in fresh snow, sitting at the top of a mountain, and the courtyard, within the fortifications, was converted into a place coaches, chariots and the like would be left while their owners visited the place. The original fortifications still remained, with its towers and main gate, and the only approach was a single road that connected to the city bellow. Literally, all Cadance did with the outside was add several forms of decoration, such as banners and heart icons.

"Unbelievable." Luna grumbled. "I suppose that I should have expected that Cadance wouldn't be as daft as I imagined."

She wore a pure black velvet cape and hood, with blue satin rimming while the changeling queen wore dark green velvet and black rimming.

Chrysalis stood next to her, by the coach they had just come in. "Cadance is crazy enough to build a brothel when Celestia and Twilight have built schools and you have an orphanage. But I had to admit I didn't expect her to have a personal guard, all of her own, with a headquarters disguised as a brothel."

"It is eye opening, indeed."

The two of them crossed the open parking space, and surprisingly enough, there were a few pony-drawn vehicles in there. Mostly richly adorned coaches made of wood and adorned with crystalized metal pieces, as well as gold or silver.

"I can't believe that ponies would be here during a curfew." Luna stared at one of such coaches and her companion chuckled.

"They probably were caught outside and couldn't go home. It is the perfect place, though. It's full of stiff beverages, luxurious food and pleasant company." Luna rolled her eyes, but the Queen went on. "I wonder if I can find any of those freaks that are into changelings!"

They both laughed a little and soon they reached the tall wooden doors to the establishment. They found themselves facing a big white griffon wearing a silver cape closed in front of his chest with a heart brooch. "Greetings. The Princess is expecting your majesties."

"Is she now?" Luna stared curiously at the griffon, who then gave each a small envelope, all pink and closed with a wax seal of Cadance's cutie mark.

"She has asked that I give each of your majesties a token. You can use it to gain entrance to the Bordello at any time and make use of the services provided."

"Thank you." Luna looked at the outside of hers while the other ripped open the envelope and produced a small crystalized metal, shield shaped, brooch with Cadance's cutie mark, but with an arrow though the heart.

Luna then stared at hers, devoid of external expression, spinning it in her telekinetic magic. "I don't know if I should feel flattered or if I should order my guards storm this place, bring Cadance out and then tie her to a pole and whip her flanks until she has grown some common sense."

The queen chuckled staring at hers. "Don't be a prude, Luna. Also, she'd probably like that."

Luna's ears lowered and she grunted audibly.

With a quick look over the small brooches, both knew exactly what to do. Luna held hers up towards the doors and they opened by themselves, allowing passage, and after both had passed through the doors, they magically dismissed the small artifacts into nothingness.

"A brothel with a magic lock…" The princess mumbled to herself. "I could teach that child a thing or two about 'love'."

The changeling queen followed the princess into the atrium while Luna kept mumbling and complaining to herself. "How come the Equestrian Society for the Good Manners of Royalty isn't rioting in front of this place right now? I can't wear a dress slightly provocative for my consort without them throwing a fit."

They were in a luxurious, if rustic, atrium with a few couches and long chairs, all in clear mahogany and colorful upholstery in satin and velvet, and that kept a few ponies, mostly crystal ponies, leisurely sitting and talking to each other, while drinking from elegant crystal glasses the servants of the Bordello offered them. In fact, one of them offered the Princess a glass with a green liquid, complete with a slice of lemon, but she ignored the pony, still mumbling to herself. The queen took it for herself, though.

The walls were in polished stone, gray and cold, adorned with tapestry of the princesses and beautiful sconces holding shinning white crystals, instead of torches. A giant golden and crystal candelabra also offered magical light from its shinning gems and the windows were framed in red curtains. Statues showed mares and stallions in different and situations and scenes, most of them related to gracious dancing or risqué posing. The sound of ponies talking and laughing coexisted with the ringing of crystals, but conversations stopped though, as the arrival of both drew attentions from the whole room.

"Look at this place…" Ponies couldn't tell what with, but the princess definitively seemed to be angry about something even if they couldn't entirely hear her. "And I couldn't put a statue on my orphanage… I wouldn't be surprised to find more 'detailed' statues any time soon."

The queen left the glass with a confused crystal pony that was talking to another and staring at Luna, and then she came up the princess' side.

"Luna, you sound like an old lady complaining that the skirts are too short." The queen complained right next to the pony. "You are ruining our style."

The princess stopped and raised her head and perked her ears. "Style?! We are not here to indulge! We must-"

Green telekinetic magic interrupted her tirade and pulled her muzzle to the Queen, who spoke low and seriously. "Do you want the whole of Equestria to know something is not only wrong, but also out of control?"

Luna hum-hummed 'no'.

"Then keep your muzzle shut and start having a good time. Ponies come here to enjoy themselves!"

When the queen let go of her, Luna smiled awkwardly at the ponies staring at them. "Don't mind us. Please enjoy your stay."

Chrysalis smiled regally. "The princess is nervous. I am her first female date after her marriage."

Luna suddenly realized that there was a high probability she would commit regicide that night. She could feel a headache coming just imagining the newspapers. Ponies stopped paying attention to them, however.

"Aren't you worried what Thorax might think when you say things like that?" She whispered to the queen.

"Of course not." Chrysalis grabbed another glass carried by a servant, in a tray in his back. A black drink, in a large glass. "It is good for him to always worry he could be doing better by me."

Then a pair of ponies approached them. One a very cute milky white and blonde unicorn wearing a fluffy white dress, and the other was an aqua colored crystal pony with a pink-ish mane and a flowy light green dress. Both wore large headdresses with white metals and multicolored feathers.

"Hello Princess Luna! Queen Chrysalis!" The unicorn greeted them cheerfully. "May we take your cloaks?"

While the queen calmly unhitched her cloak, Luna held back her irritation, but spoke with a less than friendly tone. "So, which are you two? Cadance's little courtesans or guerrillas?"

The crystal pony covered her mouth with a small smile and the white unicorn giggled, snorted, and kept giggling for a while.

"Well, at least you're having fun, aren't you?" The queen smiled coyly and the four kept to a more reserved tone, distancing themselves from the patrons, entering a different hall, to the side.

Luna spoke again. "Tell us you cared well for our captured soldiers."

"Ah, they're fine, your majesty!" The white one said. "I'm Milky White, and this is Topaz. Very pleased to meet you."

"The pleasure is ours." Luna replied, calmer now, and the queen didn't speak but nodded softly. "Tell us more about them. You certainly know the drill."

"Oh." Milky waved a hoof dismissively. "They received rooms in the hotel and have been put under watch. They also have been fed and received water."

"Very good." Luna nodded. "What about Cadence?"

"The princess would like to convene with your majesties."

Both guests looked at each other and the Princess spoke again with the pony. "Fair. Can you take us to Cadance, then?"

The unicorn nodded happily. "She has directed us to take your majesties to one of our meeting rooms!"

Then the crystal pony took Chrysalis' cloak and Luna's, but as soon as they turned to show them the way, Luna raised a hoof. "Wait. What exactly goes on these meeting rooms, normally?"

"They are business meeting rooms, Princess." The crystal pony said calmly, turning to her. "We have a hotel in the premises after all, that does receive ponies interested in doing business with potential customers."

Milky then raised an eyebrow. "Not to mention that we do clean our rooms…"

Cadance's room in the Bordello was almost as luxurious and comfortable as the one on her palace. It was, however, much more rustic and she loved it. It gave it a sort of 'old world' feeling that not even old cities like Canterlot had anymore but could still be found in the out Palace of the Two Sisters, in Everfree. Something drew her to that period. Sometimes she thought that ponies of the present were a little too nice. It made her feel awful to think like that, but it seemed that all the fun was in the past, especially when the Two Sisters had these secrets, hiding what they had done, as though they were ashamed of their younger years, when they could be really wild.

When she felt like that, she wondered if she didn't actually envy them. That she resented the fact that she had been born in the era of being too nice and boring. She tried to imagine a Princess Celestia that would lead hosts of soldiers into battle during the First and Second Griffon Wars. Fighting her in their sparing sessions, she felt like a force a nature… Meeting her on a battlefield, no rules, no safeguard spells… It must have been terrifying.

She had found a few pieces of anecdotal information here and there, mostly quotes from obscure books and journals of ponies long gone that painted a picture of a queen that would take anything she wanted and would share her quarters with whoever she ever liked. Granted, Cadance might have been reading from the wrong sources, that romanticized that period and had the big white alicorn as the center point of a convenient narrative.

The big alicorn princess, armored in gold and backed by dozens of knights… Maybe some of her aunt's romantic streak has rubbed off on her. She was a princess, had married a knight and did attend to the tournaments and festivals, after all.

It was a bit weird to imagine Princess Celestia like that, at least until Chocolate Velvet came around. He seemed to have lit a fire on the old alicorn that Cadance hadn't seen before.

And then all this present mess happened!

It was sad from another perspective. The following day would be Heart Day, her very own weekly festive day meant to bring families together, when the whole family would come together and celebrate, but instead of preparing for it, Twilight was on her airship going to distant griffon lands, Aunts Celestia and Luna were hunting them and her plans of including Chrysalis and Thorax in the family festivities were more busted than her plans to play matchmaker for her aunts.

It seemed like being a princess was much more fun in those older times.

Nevertheless, she sat on her comfortable chair, in front of her richly adorned vanity, wearing a clear pink bathrobe adorned with her cutie mark, allowing her hooficure to polish her hooves and her maid to preen her wings while another took care of her mane.

With closed eyes, the princess took a deep breath and spoke to herself. "I am very happy… Hum… No. I am immeasurably happy! Yes, that sounds much better… Hum… Maybe Overjoyed? No… That is too much."

Somepony knocked on the door and entered soon after. It was Milky White, Cadance`s second mare in her Bordello, and the one pony she's been expecting. "They've arrived, princess. Princess Luna doesn't seem very happy, though."

"Auntie Luna is just nervous. She's not used to the sort of place this is. And Queen Chrysalis has a strange way of making us feel weird too…"

"Are you nervous, princess?" One of her maids, a vivid blue crystal pony with a green mane asked her while she worked the princess' mane.

"I am. A bit…" She admitted. How wouldn't she be? She felt immersed in Luna's powerful magic that overshadowed Chrysalis' own. "Aunt Luna could really hurt me if she meant it."

Fortunately, she had a plan!

"The fact that she didn't…." Her maid wondered. "Shouldn't it encourage you to think that this whole situation is just a silly misunderstanding?"

"I wish…" She said, staring back at the mirror with worry. "But I'm afraid that my aunts may have done something very wrong in the past and then tried to hide it. It's possible that their rule is illegitimate and that they may have done something so outlandish that they must answer to it. Not to mention several things that seem odd and out of place even now."

"Princess, this is dangerous. Your Highness and Princess Twilight Sparkle are going against the most powerful mares in the world. Milky admonished her from behind. "I mean… they are older than Equestria as we know it… Should you really be trying to get them to answer for things they did in that time?"

"I am a Princess…" Cadance said, frowning a little. "I'm dangerous too. Not to mention that the consequences of what they did are still felt in the present time. Take Archduke Blueblood. It seems as though he could have a strong claim to Equestria's throne. Hum… More likely to the ruins of Everfree, I suppose. But that is not the point. It is that compensation might be due. As is fitting reprimand for what they may have done."

"I'm not sure I follow though…" Milky White appeared on her mirror, from behind her while her maid worked her mane. "Why do you need to spruce up to talk to the Princess and to Chrysalis?"

"If I am to have any luck with my plan, Princess Luna must see me as a respectable Majesty. The sovereign and legitimate ruler of the Crystal Empire, and thus, I must look the part." She said with a flair of raised muzzle and majestic poise. "And Chrysalis will react better to an attractive, sexy mare."

"Eeeh… If you say so…" The pony shrugged.

"Trust me." Cadance said with a grin, staring at her eyelashes flapping in the mirror. "It's one of the things I've picked up from Princess Celestia: if you're going into a difficult negotiation, you can afford to have all that you can in your favor. Including your appearance."

"Sounds like dating advice, actually." Milky wasn't very impressed.

Cadance frowned. "Well, politics and sex are somewhat similar. Both are dirty, noisy and someone always gets covered."

Milky did her best to remain calm... There was always Yakyakstan, after all. But she also worried for the sort of dating advice Flurry Heart would get growing up. Well, she was stuck with her princess and could only hope Cadance knew what she was doing.

Her maids kept quiet and to their job of preparing the princess' mane for her meeting with Chrysalis and Princess Luna, but the silence didn't last long: a letter arrived via 'DragonFire', not magically traceable, and requiring of specific magical knowledge and one willing dragon, both of which her sister-in-law and partner Princess conspirator had in abundance.

"Twilight!" She grinned happily, grabbing the rolled-up scroll in her telekinetic magic and quickly opening it. It had been written hastily, but Twilight's exquisite hornwriting was unmistakable.

_'__Made it out of Ponyville!_

_They had an army, but we had a Discord._

_He is, also, willing to talk about events of the past. The airship is on its way to Manehattan, and we will wait for you to talk. Don't take too long though. I don't know for how long Fluttershy can entertain him._

_Twi_

_P.S.: Chocolate Velvet needs cheering up. If you find him on your way, don't hit him too hard."_

Cadance burned the letter with magic and 'squeed' excitedly then clapped her hooves together. "Oh! Perfect! I just need Princess Luna to spill her beans now!"

"Now…" She took a deep breath and started reciting a speech after clearing her throat. "_I am immeasurably happy that you both have come to this meeting. I expect that through mutual respect and understanding we can reach a favorable agreement on how to proceed with the actual situation, preferably in a way of justice and friendship!_"

He grinned at herself in the mirror. That sounded perfect.

It was a nice room for a business meeting room, to the point Luna worried the white unicorn might have lied about what it was used for. It looked like a meeting room for business, but if there was one who knew how weird could fantasies get, it was Luna. So, she carefully examined each and every inch of the room while Chrysalis sat by the small round table covered in sweets, drinks and fruits.

The room stood on the top of a tower and a window showed the city below behind the falling snow, but inside the temperature was very comfortable as was the aroma from the vanilla incense. It reminded Luna of the place they would keep a noble hostage prisoner. The whole thing gave her weird feelings.

Luna and Chrysalis sat next to each other, patiently waiting for Cadance to arrive while the queen tasted a few sweets here or there. Luna, on the other hand, wanted to be out of that place rather sooner than later because she didn't want to think of the drama if a photograph of her in that place ever got published.

"Try to relax a little, Luna." The queen said tasting a small sweet of chocolate and black licorice. She bit half of it and tasted the filling with the tip of her tongue. "You might as well enjoy."

"Do you remember that we came here to apprehend Cadance, not for an actual date?" Luna's ears folded back.

"Of course, I remember, but I don't see why we can't have fun too." The changeling smirked and offered Luna some sort of sweet, a small tartelette with passion fruit, covered in yellow and its black seeds.

Fortunately, the door opened with one of Cadance's… Luna chose to categorize them as 'associates'; along with the white unicorn mare who called herself Milky White. And then, Cadance came in as though she was the star of an opera. She wore a flowing white dress with golden arabesque embroidery and a lot of the regional gems wreathed into her intricately woven mane.

The trio looked regal and convincing to Chrysalis: a monarch and her aides. She thought that the young and fit alicorn, with a well-groomed mane and brushed coat looked luscious. Luna too. In fact, Chrysalis decided that the best situation possible, right then, would be to stay in the Bordello with both of them!

Luna though cringed internally at the pink alicorn next to one unicorn guard/courtesan and another crystal pony one, reminded of the appointed generals that would come from conquering nations into subjugated ones to rule in the name of their conqueror, and then tried to weave themselves into the local culture like they belonged in an effort to show respect for their culture and quell rebellion that resulted in even worse insult and resentment.

Fortunately, Cadance was well intentioned, and it seemed that neither the crystal ponies or daft alicorn noticed anything. Even if the Crystal Empire was liberated, and she still stood like a sore hoof as a leader from another culture to Luna. Thankfully, it was all Equestria in the end and the 'alicorn factor' always made things easier.

What the hay was Celestia thinking when she gave it to Cadance like that? She certainly remembered as well as Luna the monumental gaffe that sort of thing was shortly after ponies started growing a conscience about culturally sensitive subjects.

Then the pink princess put a hoof over her chest and smiled happily, taking a breath. "I am immeasurably happy you both have come to-"

"Cadance, whatever you think you are doing, is not going the way you think it is." Luna said from her seat. "Sit down already so that we can talk."

The pink alicorn frowned frustrated and sat down angrily at her chair.

"What do I need to do to get you and Twilight to abandon this quest of yours?" Luna sounded mentally taxed by the whole affair.

"You could start by talking about what the hay you and Auntie Celestia did that made you feel the need to hide it!" Cadance frowned. "Then we could talk about compensation for all the wronged parties! And an apology for lying to your fellow princesses! Or even better, the whole of Equestria! An official confession would be nice too!"

"Very well, if it will make you feel better, I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my abilities." Luna tried to relax as best as she could.

Chrysalis smiled amusingly. Cadance looked so cute when she was angry.

"Nice! But first there is another thing." The young alicorn grinned and her horn shone somewhat fiercely, letting go a bang of magical energies. A golden ring manifested around Luna's horn. "There! I believe now you see that you are in a position of captivity and must yield, as the target of an investigation."

While Chrysalis wondered what in Tartarus Cadance was doing now, Luna remained stoically calm at how out worldly preposterous that child's notion of herself was. "I only hope this thing is a real inhibitor ring and not one of the toys your cohorts certainly use in this place for other ends rather than a serious interrogation."

Cadance frowned a little more. "This is a real ring, alright. It was made to specifications to inhibit alicorn magic specifically because I feared I would be forced to keep you or auntie Celestia under control, precisely in this sort of situation! I served as a template myself!"

"I do hope this is some mighty magic, otherwise you would look like an infantile fool." Luna remained eerily calm and it was starting to creep into Cadance's confidence.

It was then Chrysalis rose a hoof, almost worried. "Cadance, you do see me here, don't you? How do you expect me to not free Luna and help her dealing with you?"

Cadance then smiled confidently again. "I sure do! The thing is that I expect you to see that we both can work together and that you sided with the wrong party in this whole affair."

"Do tell." The queen grinned, narrowing her eyes in curiosity.

Luna unwieldly grabbed a glass of orange juice with her hoof and, nonchalantly took a sip from it. "How amusing. Princess Cadance is playing at intrigue. Somepony call Mister Marlin. We have the ending for his book series right here. All we are missing are some gelded soldiers, a dragon, an obnoxious bastard, an incestuous couple and a foolish child who thinks herself queen. Oh, wait… We already have the child."

After staring angrily at Luna, Cadance turned back to Chrysalis. "Don't you want to know the truth about what happened? By what you told us in the Rock, it seemed like it was a significant episode for you."

"I don't really care." Chrysalis shook her head. "I stand to gain nothing from it."

"Well, that is where you are wrong!" Cadance grinned a little too much. "Together we can figure out not only what is happening now, but what happened in the past. Seek a compensation! How about that?"

Chrysalis wasn't impressed. "I already know what is going on in the present. I am a part of it, dimwit. And I am not interested in whatever happened in the past."

"But… But… You told us a scenario that looked like the world was about to be destroyed, or something just as terrifying."

"I don't care, Cadance." The queen was beginning to tire of the game. "If whatever happened wasn`t their fault, then there is nothing to bother then with. If they caused it, then I'm already on the winning side."

"Surprisingly, things didn't go as you planned… And you are angry about it because your ego was hurt." Luna accused her. "You are wounded that you were lied to. We did it to protect you. To protect all of Equestria. You are welcome."

"It's not about me! Twilight is angry too!" Cadance struck the table with a hoof. "We already know that you did something, that you hid a lot of information about this griffon empire, about your arrival and the unicorns tending to the sun and the moon. The only reasonable reason why you would do something like this would be because it would jeopardize your position now!"

"Is that what you think?" Luna looked almost bored. "That I and Celestia did something so horrible that we would change history books, consort with the griffons and hide their own blemish and then we'd pretend it never happened."

"That is exactly what you did!" Cadance hit the table again, in anger, this time causing all the cute little sweets to jump and glasses to clink together. "You two think yourselves above reproach and that is why you do things like the treaty with the changelings and think that everypony else has to shut up and take it, like it or not!"

"Is that what this is?" Luna still remained stoic, if haught. "You're upset you weren't invited for the negotiations with Chrysalis? When you're behaving like a child right now, can you blame us for keeping you out?"

"That is not the point!" Cadance shouted this time. "I understand you think you do these things for the good of Equestria, but you can't decide what is good for Equestria by yourselves."

"Tell me, Cadenza." It really infuriated her the way Luna called her 'Cadenza' with that tone, but she controlled herself. "What could the whole of Equestria do if Celestia decided she was done being nice to all of you? What would the yaks do? What would the griffons or the even the dragons do? There is an unspoken law that is true to every universe, Cadenza. Might does make right."

"This is horrible!"

"No, it is not. It is a simple fact that the strong has power over the weak. Creatures like the old Dragon Lord and emperor Grigor believed that the strong had the right to abuse the weak, while me and Celestia have the duty of protecting the weak. And even then, there are several ways of doing so and it has changed as time passed on."

Luna took another sip from her glass. "The truth is that the same game is played with different rules by different players. Most creatures in Equesria don't even realize that the only reason they are alive is because we have allowed them to, and they would cease to exist if we demanded it. You are included in this and you should learn to play by the rules that were presented to you; and instead of learning it, you are offended you weren't deemed ready yet."

While Cadance was stunned that Luna had just told her some truths, Chrysalis had far more practical things in her mind and was frustrated over the fact that Cadance not only let Luna take control of the conversation, but also failed to extract any meaningful information out of the younger of The Sisters she could use.

She had hoped to come out of it unscathed, but Cadance was being an idiot and Chrysalis had to take the reins of the conversation. But she didn't really worry about the past that concerned Twilight and Cadance so much. The queen worried about something much more practical, such as what was their plan with that stupid coltfriend of theirs and on what she had invested the Swarm's resources on. So, she raised a hoof with a petulant smile that almost worried Luna. "Actually, I would like to know some things about Chocolate Velvet."

"What about him?" Cadance's ears perked up and her expression changed from frustration to curiosity while she looked at one and then the other.

"You are making a mistake, Chrysalis." The blue alicorn warned her, narrowing her eyes.

"I don't know, Luna." The queen flashed her a grin full of sharp teeth. "I think that you may have made a mistake not sharing the whole truth with me."

"Have it your way then, but you will regret it." The blue princess rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. "You were doing so well."

"What. About. Him?" Cadance insisted; her instincts told her she had found something important and her frustration levels felt a lot more tolerable now. Suddenly it seemed like he was part of the mystery and it filled her with curiosity, not to mention that the fact that he was a friend made it even more urgent. Perhaps a victim in The Sister's schemes? What did he have to do with this whole thing?

Chrysalis obliged. "Didn't you think it was strange that he came out of nowhere?"

Luna fumed. For the first time she seemed legitimately angry since they left the palace. "Cadance, she will violate the privacy of an individual and of the deal we have made because of this asinine investigation of yours. Cease this now before it is too late."

"No." Cadance frowned. "You wouldn't have had to hide anything if it wasn't wrong to begin with."

"Well spoken, Cadance." The changeling chuckled. "Well, Twilight's friends found him near Ponyville, like he had just popped into existence there. Didn't it strike you as strange?"

"I assumed that it was a way to protect his origins." Cadance said softly. "I assumed that, like me, he had come from an orphanage or something of the sort, and the princesses were trying to protect his privacy of scrutiny from the news."

"Chocolate Velvet was made."

"What do you mean?" The alicorn shook her head in confusion.

"He was, literally, built magically."

"What?" She recoiled a bit. "Like a flesh golem? A Hoofenstein's monster?"

She recoiled more; with the acid taste of the sweets she ate while getting prepared for this meeting returning to her throat. "This is revolting!"

"Calm yourself, Cadance. You are imagining the wrong thing." Luna stared angrily at her.

But Cadance was busy contemplating images of a pony being assembled piece by piece in some sort of dark laboratory, complete with a leaky ceiling and magical sparks all over a metal bed. "It can't be! He is too lifelike for that!"

Chrysalis grinned a small evil grin. "I don't know if this is better or worse, but we didn't harvest organs or parts for him. Celestia cast several spells that formed his body. It took several days, almost a month. Not only that, but Celestia stuck him with a soul she plucked from who knows where. She needed me to keep him alive during the process until he was ready to survive. She paid me with my name in the House of Majesty."

Then the queen tilted her head a little, with an amused half-smile. "It gets better. They both, Celestia and Luna, had me prepare a cure. It seems like they were incapable of generating foals, and with some experiments I did with the samples Celestia had given me of herself, I have discovered that her soul lacks a part of it that would allow it to go to whatever it would be supposed to go if she died. How about that?"

That was a lot to take in for poor Cadance. Maybe comparing him to a fictional creature made to invoke feelings of dread and from a cautionary tale was unfair, but the whole thing seemed otherworldly bizarre!

Cadance could definitively understand her aunts wanting somepony special for them, particularly considering the specifics of their position and, even if they could literally have any stallion or mare they desired, such would not be a good idea. But having a pony literally fabricated for them was surreal. It bordered on the insane and something Cadance would imagine as a megalomaniacal project for some exceedingly rich and powerful noble, completely out of touch with reality.

Then it hit her that her aunts were exceedingly rich and powerful nobles. She stared at Luna who stared back at her, apparently stoically, but she knew her aunt and could see it in her eyes. Luna was furious.

What about this weird detail about Auntie Celestia's soul? How did that factor in?

"Why?!"

While Luna couldn't believe how unsavorily stupid Cadance was being, the queen shrugged. "I imagine that their little coltfriend was a luxury they wanted? Why don't you enlighten us, Luna?"

"Chrysalis is being very disingenuous." Luna huffed. "For starters, the actual deal was for her to release the changelings from the most extreme forms of her control over them, and for them to share their medical advances with the rest of Equestria. Chocolate Velvet was supposed to be a collaboration, and she was never meant to experiment and create her Praetorians or unravel Celestia's privacy."

"Privacy?!" The queen launched. "That is one way of putting it, I suppose."

"In reality…" Luna went on. "The worse one could gather from the situation was that Chrysalis was allowed to take the seat in the House of Majesty in Thorax stead. It was meant as a display of good will and that we trusted her with the position."

"Does he know?" Cadance shook her head slightly, still trying to understand the logic behind that and Chrysalis shook her head.

"I wouldn't tell him. I don't think it would be healthy for his head to know this sort of thing."

"Auntie Luna?" Cadance tried touching her hooves with her own, but she retrieved them from the table.

"Now…" Chrysalis spoke again. "Since I have invested a considerable amount of resources from the Hive in this curious project, I would like it very much if the actual reason behind his creation was disclosed to us. I insist, Luna."

She stood quiet for a few a few seconds, then she showed them a manic grin. "You are not going to like the answer."

Cadance became intimidated, nervously holding onto the table's edge and the queen narrowed her eyes. "I'll take my chances, Luna."

"Celestia merely lusts after him." She said plainly.

"No, really." Chrysalis narrowed her eyes some more, adding more than a dangerous edge to her voice.

Then the blue alicorn giggled and laughed. "Oh, my stars. Everypony is so used to seeing Celestia scheming and plotting that nopony believes that she, like everypony else, can do things for the simplest of reasons!"

"She's become so madly in love with him that she'll cater to his every whim and she's become so jealous of him she won't even let me near him without her supervision!" She laughed and followed with louder laughter, putting a leg over her face. "He caters to that stupid knight fetish of hers and so she gave him all the best enchanted armor and weapons we have. Custom fitted and heavily adorned with the most expensive things one could put on a barding and matching weapons. It's cost us millions of Bits. Equestria is almost broke."

Luna sighed and took a sip from a glass with grape juice. While Cadance had her mouth agape in shock, the queen had become furious, grimacing and snarling like a feral dog.

The princess stared at Luna, and then at Chrysalis, and then back at Luna and finally back at Chrysalis. "I… I don't know what to say!"

"I am going to murder Celestia and that freak of hers!" The queen said, hitting the table so hard Cadance 'meeped' in surprise. "I am going to have my army ready for when you and Twilight come back with whatever you find in the griffon lands. We're going to have these two removed from Canterlot and… Put in an asylum or something!"

"Crissy! You can't be serious!"

"Oh, yes, I am!" The queen growled. "We have the Lion to deal with, and now Celestia has to, finally, be going senile!"

"Chrysalis! This is… You can't! I mean!" Cadance almost panicked before she managed to grab her wits again, massaging her forehead with a hoof. "Chrysalis! Listen to me! It's not that serious! They just… Had a living being fabricated to their specifications like he was a piece of furniture… And then… Aunt Celestia has gone insane like… Wasting millions on him… And.. And… Parading him about like a piece of ornament… Oh my goodness! This is awful!"

She quickly lost her wits again. "What do we do?!"

"Like I said…" The Queen stood from her chair and stared directly into Cadance. "I'll have my military ready. You and Twilight go get whatever information you can that we can use against these two. Try to get the Lion involved, it shouldn`t be too hard now."

"I need my barding and weapons! Shining's too!" She touched the queen with a hoof as she passed by getting her to stop and look at her.

"Go to the palace. I'll get my soldiers to assist you. Do it quickly, before Luna's guards realize something isn't right." Chrysalis said, barely stopping on her way out.

"Chrysalis! Wait!" She turned on her chair and called, but all she saw was the door closing on the queen's wake. "Oh…"

"I am amazed at how easily she can flip sides and switch emotions to suit her needs. I wonder if she even realizes she does it." Luna said calmly. "It's going to take a long time before Chrysalis learns that she won't get anything like that."

Cadance stared at her, confused, worried and somewhat a little distressed. Luna went on. "Things didn't go as you planned, did they? You wanted to know about things in the past, but Chrysalis was only interested in the 'investment' she made; in the end, neither got what you wanted to hear because you've allied yourselves with the wrong party. Feeling like a fool, already?"

Since Cadance simply stared dumbly at her, Luna went on. "Now, remove this ring before somepony gets hurt and come with me to Ponyville where Celestia is. The sooner you abandon this quest you've embarked on with Twilight Sparkle, the better, and we can try to make you understand the situation."

"No!" Cadence shouted, pulled out of her shock. "You need help! You both need help! You… Three! All three of you need! Help!"

Luna simply stared calmly and wondered how could the wondrous mystery of Harmony have produced such an idiot, but her playful side got the best of her and Cadance did her best not to freak out. More. "What you did is not normal! I don't really understand what is going on, but we'll figure it out!"

Obviously, she failed.

Luna smiled ever so slightly. "What isn't normal, Cadance? Messing with historical records, making secret deals with evil queens or custom designing a coltfriend?"

She stared blankly for a second or two. "All of those!"

Luna giggled more than she would like to admit. "Calm down, Cadance."

"No! I'm fine! I'm perfectly fine! You need to calm down!" The pink alicorn held onto the side of the side of the table like it was the only safe thing in existence and Luna found it curious and funny how ponies always got their manes into a mess when they became nervous. Cadance`s was shedding its gemstones by the second as though not even the intricately woven traditional mane do could withstand the stress she went through right now. "This is fine! This is perfectly fine! It's not like there is a war about to start, or Chrysalis was out of control, or The Princesses that rule the world could be going insane, or there was an artificially made pony running around! EVERYTHING IS PERFECTLY FINE!"

"For pony's sake, Cadance." Luna did her best not to laugh. "Stop for a second and breathe. You already knew he was from another world. This is not a difficult leap to take."

"I thought you and Auntie Celestia meant that he was from a distant place! Not that you had him made like one would order a dress!"

"Take this thing out of my horn and let's talk. I'll show you some things that will make everything easier to understand."

The other princess shrieked though. "No! You're staying with that hornring until we have the situation under control! You'll stay here! In the tower! Where it is safe!"

With that, she turned and rushed towards the door, slammed her muzzle on it, opened the door with her magic using much more force than needed and rushed out, closing the door on the way out, got her tail stuck, opened it again and then closed it.

Luna stared at the closed door. Then at the two ponies that remained. They didn't seem much better off than Cadance was. "Can I expect you two to be more reasonable?"

"Sorry, Princess!" Milky White said. "We're keeping you here until Princess Cadance says you can go."

"It's for your own safety, princess!" The crystal pony said seriously.

Luna stared at them for a while. It always amused her when ponies told her they wouldn't let her do things. But she also didn't want to hurt these ponies, and the situation was amusing, but under control. "Fine then."

She then proceeded to taste the fine sweets on the table.

Cadance hurried down the stairs, clip-clopping frenetically on the stone stairs and crashed into Chrysalis with a panicked shriek as soon as she left the stairwell.

"Cadance?! What in Equestria are you doing?!" She turned, yelling angrily. Fortunately, the corridor was empty, and ponies wouldn't hear them in distant rooms thanks to the music and cheering sounds of festive ponies.

"I'm sorry!" The princess took two steps back frantically. "I'm sorry! I just…"

Chrysalis held her with her hooves, sitting in front of her. "Cadance, calm down. I understand. This is your first revolution and you are scared. Trust me, these things are normal. This sort of things used to happen all the time in the past, before Celestia and Luna."

"That doesn't sound nice at all!" The princess yelled louder than she had expected.

"Now now, this place is full of ponies that don't need to concern themselves with this whole mess. So, what you are going to do is go to the palace, find your things, and take them to Twilight's airship. There you will tell them all we learned here about what your aunts are doing and you are going to convince Twilight to stop losing it like you are now, and then you will both to go to the Lion, figure out how this whole thing wraps together and the three of you will call for a vote of no confidence in The Sisters."

"If it is necessary, my army and the Lion`s will be ready to support you and ponies will be lost without The Sisters. Understand?"

Cadance seemed to be paying too much attention to her. "Did you understand?"

The pony nodded a little too fast.

"Can you do that?" She nodded too fast again. "Good. Now, we both will walk out, and I will deal with Luna's guards that pulled us here. Once in the palace grab what you need, and from there, teleport to Twilight's airship."

"Okay…" Cadance breathed out, finally. Then she frowned. "Wait a second. If Celestia and Luna are removed from office, who would take their place?"

Chrysalis put a hoof on her chest. "I would humbly accept the nomination."

"Yeah… Right…" Cadance frowned.

"This is not the time, though. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Right now, we need to get you to your palace and to Twilight's airship. Come on." She put one of her membranous wings over Cadance's back and the two of them walked through one of the many corridors in the Bordello, soon reaching the central room where Cadance held a faux-throne.

It was the main area of the restaurant that made use of the original main hall complete with three sets of long tables before the throne and a giant candelabra that generated light. Ponies sat by the tables, enjoying their meals but when the pair entered, they cheered for the princess and she found herself waving awkwardly at them while the queen simply kept her confident smile.

Fortunately for Cadance's nerves, the pair found no resistance until the entrance hall and past the main doors, where they found Luna's guards, talking to her griffon greeter. She worried they would become distrusting of the queen escorting their 'prisoner', but she soon found something different over her back and the membranous wing of the queen had been replaced by soft feathers.

When she next stared, it was Luna next to her, escorting her towards her coach.

"Princess. It seems everything went as planned." The big thestral guard greeted them, joining the others in a respectful bow.

For a second Cadance worried, but there were no unicorns in the group to recognize the changeling magic at work and the 'Princess' voice was a perfect imitation. "Queen Chrysalis knows how to make an impression on a pony. Cadenza saw that she had no alternative, for the good of the rest of Equestria."

"Princess, is that so?" The griffon eyed the pair suspiciously.

Surprising even her nerve-wracked self, Cadance's voice was under control, as were her shudders and she managed to sound regal enough. "Auntie Luna has explained to me a few things I didn`t know and… Honestly, it all makes perfect sense now."

The griffon nodded, satisfied. "Very well, them."

One of the thestrals opened the windowed door for them and 'Luna' encouraged Cadance with her wing. "Kindly take the young princess to her palace so that she may remain in comfortable captivity. Chrysalis' guards will care for her needs and security. You may return and enjoy the services of the Bordello, if you so desire."

"Your highness." The thestral guards agreed.

"Now, you would not give these fine gentlestalions any trouble, would you Cadenza?"

She smiled awkwardly. "Not at all, auntie."

With that, Cadance boarded the coach and away she went. The queen under Luna's guise realized that something wasn't exactly right. She moved her ear, listening to nothing in particular as she narrowed her eyes.

"Is something wrong, Princess?" The griffon asked, curiously.

"No…" The blue alicorn said, looking around in the parking area, only to return her eyes to the griffon. "It´s nothing. Just keep to your post."

She went back inside, not worried if the griffon would do as she ordered and hurried all the way back to the tower where Cadance had imprisoned Luna. Opening the door, things there remained the same, with Luna still wearing the hornring, and drinking something, awkwardly holding a wine glass with her hoof, and under watch from the unicorn and crystal pony Cadance had brought. A few gems littered the carpeted floor, but that didn't bother the queen as her green magic changed her back to her original form.

"What are you up to?" She barely accused Luna of something she didn't know of, walking to the table.

"I am tasting the yak spiced wine. It is stronger than I expected. I quite like it." Luna said a little surprised.

"No." Chrisalis sat on the chair opposite to hers. "You are planning something. No way in Tartarus that simple hornring would keep your magic inhibited for long! I thought you were deathly worried that Twilight and Cadance would talk to the Lion, but you are sitting here, like you are on vacation!"

"Oh. That." Luna put her glass back on the table. "Celestia ought to catch Twilight and I figure Cadance will be there too, then she'll stop them. Furthermore, I'll reach out to them in their sleep, as I had planned with Celestia."

"No." Chrysalis put her hooves on the table and stared fiercely at the princess. "You are planning something: this doesn't add up to the way you acted when we arrived. What about my soldiers. And about Chocolate Velvet?"

"Ah… Well…" Luna grinned her a small excited smile. "A time for everything… I figured I could simply enjoy the experience!"

"Luna, what are you talking about now?"

"It's been thousands of years since I've been held hostage! My sister went to rescue me with a whole Battlehorn Legion. It was pretty impressive…" She said rubbing her hooves together. "I'd like to experience that again… And… Well… This is a tower, I am a princess, and you are an evil queen. And now we even have a knight under the Royal House…"

Chrysalis looked right at her for a few seconds as her brain had to restart the process of understanding what she had just heard a few times. "Luna, remember that conversation about you and Celestia going insane? You are not helping."

That had to be a distraction. Now that Luna knew that she wasn't happy about Chocolate Velvet she was trying to distract her. The princess certainly knew that Chrysalis could create some mayhem in Celestia's way to protect Twilight and Cadance. There was no way Luna really was waiting for her prince charming to come and save her! That was madness and there was also no way Chrysalis would believe Luna thought she would believe this insanity.

She stared at Luna, rubbing her chin with a hoof, and her eyes narrowed at the princess, who then stared submissively at her with the saddest eyes the queen had ever seen. "I guess you'll have to force me to tell you what you wanted…"

The queen wavered, but held on, lowered her voice. "This isn't funny. You and Celestia managed to make a millennia spanning, multi-world mess!"

Then the alicorn pouted like she was the cover for one of those magazines stallions (and Chrysalis) bought only because they wanted to read the articles. "But I thought I should enjoy myself a bit…"

Chrysalis breathed in deeply. "Luna…"

Those big blue, innocent eyes and her waving starry mane… The Queen wavered. She could think of thousands of ways this whole mess could go wrong and how she was walking into whatever scheme Luna had set with before her eyes. But… It was Luna… One of the most desired mares in all of the world.

Chrysalis sighed. She was, certainly a flawed creature and almost felt like betraying Cadance, and in a way, her own people. But… Luna!

She sighed again, and then gave Luna her best malevolent grin. "Well, then… I suppose we will have to turn this tower in to an adequate interrogation room befitting of the Bordello of Candy."

Amid all that, the crystal pony turned to Milky White. "Uh… What is going on?"

"I'm going back to Princess Celestia's Royal Guard…" She sounded so, so tired…


	11. Machine Hearts

It was getting late, but Twilight had relaxed a bit after Discord had said he would stay with them, since whatever she wanted to talk about was so important. She only hoped things didn't go wrong for Cadance in the Crystal Empire. She hadn't, after all, returned the letter Twilight had sent her a few hours ago. Though that could be because if she did it might draw attention and she might be trying to sneak around the Crystal Empire. Twilight figured she would simply have to swallow her anxiety and be patient.

Fortunately, Discord was entertained talking with Fluttershy and playing games with Shining Armor and Spike. He should remain with them until next morning, and while they waited for Cadance, Twilight, Rarity and Starlight Glimmer made sure they had more non-lethal ammunition for their firearms. She wouldn't have anypony in her group shooting real bullets anywhere, as long as she could afford it, and her ship's armory had plenty of the pre-requisite crystal balls and the supplies needed for reloading the firearms in their armory and their own many times over. Next to them, Twilight's royal guards prepared the small paper cartridges with the measured powder and the magical bullets when they were ready.

She even had the luxury of sparing Shining Armor to be with Discord and Spike, the three mares and their pegasus helpers ought to do the job enchanting all the ball bullets they'd need.

They sat by a large and heavy wooden table fitted with a rustic black metal structure and that had two jars filled with the crystal balls, one with the clear ones and the other with the shinning pink ones, with the active enchantment. On the other side of the armory, Applejack was busy with the repetitive process of reloading her caplock revolver and still had Fluttershy's soothing ointment on her bruises. Nothing too worrying fortunately, just a couple of bruises that got under her barding in the fight with Ponyville's town militia.

For some ponies that lacked proper training and equipment, they sure hit hard. Regardless, Twilight knew her friend and knew that she could endure much, much more. Earth pony stamina was already recognized, but Applejack's was legendary. Which only made her even more stuborn.

"Somepony really needs to make this thing more practical." The earth pony complained absentmindedly while pushing the bullet on one of the chambers, and then sealing it.

"Do you need any help, Applejack?" Starlight looked up from the crystal ball she focused her magic on.

"Nah. I rather do this my own." She carefully placed the percussion cap for one of the weapon's chambers and the unicorn wondered, one more time out of several, just how could the earth ponies do that sort of thing with their hooves. "I'm almost done anyway."

Twilight focused on her own thoughts and the repetitive nature of the simple spell she cast on the ammunition helped her. Memories of their conversation with Queen Chrysalis reminded her of just how careful she'd have to be with Discord and she tried to mentally organize what questions to ask. She also entertained the notion that he might not want to answer, and in that case, what would she say to dissuade him. She found some solace in the idea that, this time, at least she'd have the advantage of actually preparing for the conversation.

Maybe a good idea would be to condense their findings on a few notes and avoid too much detail. Let him provide de details for them.

And, in the worst-case scenario, what would she do if he decided to stop them or something of the sort.

Suddenly Cadance's familiar magic pinged her senses and woke her out of her thoughts. The other unicorns looked at her and soon followed her outside and up the stairs to the deck, where they were soon joined by the others, except for Spike and Discord, but also the crystal pony maid, who watched over the sleeping baby.

The day had turned to night and Twilight hadn`t even noticed it, but that wasn`t important and she saw Rainbow Dash flying back towards the ship, signaling to the captain to slow her down. Only then did she see her sister-in-law flying towards them, carrying a pair of large black suitcases, flying awkwardly with the two unwieldy things in tow.

Oddly enough she wore a beautiful white and gold dress, which made her flying even worse, along with the Crystal Empire`s traditional mane-do, but it was a mess. When she landed, Shining Armor hurried towards her, in front of the others and helped her with those big cumbersome things.

"Cadie! What happened to you?!" He left them on the floor and touched her mane softly.

"Oh, it's awful, Shinny!" Her ears fell and she looked dejected.

"Tell us what happened!" Twilight urged her, drawing closer in distress. "Are you hurt?"

"No! But…" She hesitated for a second while her eyes shone with tears forming in them. "I'm afraid Princess Celestia may…"

She hesitated again, more and more agitated, with her wings flared and stepping nervously on the floor. "By what Luna's told me, she may be becoming insane!"

"What?!" Both alicorns wished they could find the collective gasp humorous, but Cadance seemed very serious and scared.

"What do you mean 'insane'?" Applejack blurted out.

Rarity hummed nervously. "Well, Princess Celestia has always been a bit on the eccentric side. I am sure this is simply a misunderstanding!"

"I knew it!" Pinkie's ears pulled back. "It all makes sense now!"

"For the love of Equestria, Cadie! What are you saying?!" Her unicorn husband held her in his hooves and shook her slightly.

"Oh my gosh!" Twilight found her breath way too short and her head flooded, in a mere second, with all sorts of anecdotal evidence of what Cadance had just said, why that was bad and, also, additional reasons to panic, such as the paralyzing chaos that was sure to explode in the entire world as soon as that reached the news and how much that would help The Lion's cause. How that would cause even more chaos and how the entire world would END!

"For crying out loud!" Applejack yelled in the middle of half-panicking ponies. "Spit it out already!"

"Alright!" Cadance caught her breath and inhaled deeply, next to Twilight who did the same. Applejack had to admit it looked rather cute… For an instant she wondered if she could get some sort of photography award if she caught all three of them, Celestia, Cadance and Twilight doing that in a single shot. That notwithstanding, Cadance managed to speak clearly again. "When I arrived in the Crystal Empire, I figured Luna and Chrysalis were there too! So, I decided to sneak to our palace, but along the way, I came along my personal guard capturing a group of Luna's Royal Guards and Chrysalis' creepy big changeling soldiers!"

Ponies paid attention, particularly Twilight. "So, I figured I'd hide with them in the Bordello and interrogate the changelings and thestrals, but before we got much information out of them, Luna and Chrysalis arrived. I tried talking to them, but Princess Luna wouldn't say anything, and Chrysalis didn't care about the events we are trying to research, and then she got Luna to talk about Chocolate Velvet and Princess Celestia, instead!"

"I'm sure Princess Luna hid something from Chrysalis since she insisted, and pressed Luna because she was sure Auntie Celestia had some ulterior motive behind… Creating him!"

While ponies wondered what exactly Cadance meant with that specific word and she explained to them in the most near-panic way possible, Twilight figured she already suspected something like that. It really didn't take a genius to figure that out. What is more, Twilight didn't understand why that freaked Cadance out that much… Especially considering she was a pony whose special talent was making others fall in love with one another… Maybe she felt cheated or something, since she liked pairing ponies in pairs that 'worked' inside that head of hers. Regardless, Chocolate Velvet was a nice pony that loved the Princesses and had that romantic streak that some ponies of her time could afford to have more of: he was insecure, but he also was brave, persistent and chivalrous. In fact, he reminded her of her brother's best qualities. He was fine in Twilight's book, whatever his origin.

With those thoughts, Twilight turned her attention to her sister-in-law and her distressed voice getting higher pitched and faster with every word when she seemed to be reaching the important part. "And then she said Equestria is almost broke because all of the things she gives him! Enchanted armor! Enchanted weapons! And how he caters to her knight fetish and-"

"I'm shocked Queen Chrysalis believed any of that!" Twilight interrupted her, more interested in the relevant stuff, and that caused ponies to look at her, particularly Cadance and her frazzled mane. "Wait, you believed that?"

"Princess Luna had a magical inhibitor ring on her horn, and Chrysalis didn't hurt her or anything, but she was very… Intimidating." Cadance defended herself despite the slight sting of insecurity, starting to feel a bit like a fool. "You know... In that way Chrysalis knows how to be intimidating."

Twilight grunted. "Cadance, we just fought him, and he did have some fancy armor, but nowhere near that sort of thing. It wasn't even magical because he doesn't have enough rank in the chivalric society. He's climbing their ranks like anypony else... Certainly didn't look like Princess Celestia was favoring him. And there is no inhibitor hornring in existence that can contain Princess Luna's magic! You both let her distract you from what we really needed to figure out with something that is inconsequential! And also, plain wrong!"

"Where is she now?" Twilight asked a little too loudly and Cadance's ears fell as did her gaze.

"Chrysalis' taken her prisoner." Cadance rubbed her legs together. "She helped me avoid Luna's guards and she is now taking care of Luna in the Bordello."

That could be a problem… Twilight didn't trust Chrysalis to be nice… Or even civil to Luna if she believed that The Sisters tried to cross her. But Twilight couldn't afford to deal with that now and Princess Luna could certainly take care of herself. She also relented, when remembering what a blunder she would have made of their conversation with Chrysalis if it wasn't for Cadance. She simply sighed, a little worried she might've been too hard on Cadance, in her state.

"But…" Cadance did feel like a fool after Twilight's answer to her worries. "There is more… Chrysalis figured out something. Auntie Celestia gave her some 'samples' of herself... Whatever those were... And Chrysalis experimented with those. She figured out there is something wrong with Princess Celestia's soul."

That got Twilight's attention and Cadance felt a little better, knowing she hadn't completely blundered her interaction with Luna and Chrysalis, and then she concluded. "There seems to be a part of her soul that is missing."

"How does that happen?" Rainbow blurted out in the middle of the shocked ponies, before Twilight could formulate a proper question.

"You can damage one's soul through necromancy, or some powerful enough magic…" Twilight muttered looking down and thoughtfully. "We don't really understand a lot about souls other than they are the magical component of our bodies. It's a sort of duality: we have bodies with physiological functions and a soul that animates that body with magical functions… Hence, the changelings and their situation."

There was a bit of silence, as ponies let Twilight think with a hoof on her chin and looking down with a frown. Maybe it related to Celestia's connection to the sun? Maybe it related to how she can live for so long without losing her magical potency. Maybe it was something completely unrelated. What about Luna? It frustrated Twilight that Chrysalis hadn't thought of figuring that out by checking on Luna's soul or something! Chrysalis was no science-mare or scholar… She was a moron! Ugh!

She looked up. "Did she say anything else?"

"It's the part that would let her go to wherever souls are supposed to go when she died." The pink alicorn said staring at Twilight, as if she expected her to immediately figure out what that meant.

Twilight only hummed to herself and thought some more before speaking. "Well, I don't have a clue how can Chrysalis claim that, but she's probably been studying souls a lot longer than I, and if I ever got to study one, I'd probably not even know that it had parts to it, but if our bodies have different organs, I suppose it makes sense. So, what does that mean? I don't really know"

"That Princess Celestia is immortal?" Fluttershy offered.

Twilight shook her head. "That is not how I'd design an immortal soul in how we know magic flows in Equestria. If her body died, she'd just be left wandering, and the reason one is supposed to expire is that their soul needs to rest. Or something like that."

Was that actual scientific knowledge on the subject or was Twilight operating on anecdotal information from ponies that didn't really know what they were talking about? She wasn't sure where that information had come from, now that she thought of it. She hated that.

"But if her soul was damaged, that would make sense." Cadance replied uncertainly. "Wouldn't it?"

"No. Yes? I'm not sure. That sounds very specific and capricious. Not to mention that if her soul was tired because it's been alive for too long and couldn't leave to rest, she would never be able to cast such powerful spells as she can." Twilight kind of agreed, but not entirely, and then disagreed. "It could be that because her soul was damaged, a part of it that took the damage stopped working, or Chrysalis doesn't fully understand what she saw. Which is more likely."

"Or maybe you high falutin 'smart ponies' are trying to talk about things you don't know apples from oranges about." Applejack grinned like she'd caught them stealing the cookies before dinner, and the two princesses smiled sheepishly. "I reckon we gotta talk to Discord."

"Yes..." Cadance grunted quietly. "I suppose that of all of us, he is the one most likely to know about that."

"In the morning." Twilight cleared her throat and smiled some more. "It's going to be a dense conversation and we'll need clear heads. Not to mention that Cadance clearly needs some rest. We all do, after the whole affair in Ponyville."

"I am simply relieved we did not stumble upon on Princess Celestia." Rarity sighed. "I am positive she would have ruined our escape."

"She avoided us, Rarity." Twilight said. "She certainly noticed something was up on Ponyville and decided to distance herself. You can be sure she would've been with Chocolate Velvet if that wasn't the case. Or that she would, at least would've showed up at the end."

Which made Twilight think... Celestia certainly intended on acting against them again. She needed to figure out when and how, try to anticipate it because fighting the Princess head on simply wasn't an alternative.

But it was too late, she was tired, and they needed to rest right then. They retired for the night. Including Discord, nestled like a big cat with Fluttershy. Cadance slept with Shining Armor and her baby, respectfully close to Miss Calcite. Or at least as much as the small quarters would allow. Ponies found places to spread a blanket and pillow and sleep. It was a cozy place filled with friends, more than a crowded bedroom.

Twilight found her own place in a corner, but she didn't sleep. The small light from her horn let her review her and Cadance's notes, her notes from the conversation with Chrysalis and their general thoughts on the whole thing, as much as a list of things she meant to ask Discord and a condensed version of their findings, organized in bullet points and in chronological order. It was going to be a long night.

Coming out the door, Twilight stretched for a while and wandered the deck of her ship. Her friends still slept, and her crew was nowhere to be seem. Under the starry sky, under Luna's moonlight, the airship sailed fast, creating a chilling wind, but she resisted it. It bothered her that the Magic of Friendship's crew was nowhere to be seen, though… She was pretty sure that the airship needed tending during night hours.

She didn't let that keep her from pacing around though, actually enjoying the fast wind caused by her vessel's flight, while the actual wind flapped her sails and made her magical engines hum ever slightly mightier, as though they appreciated the wind too. She knew well that the sails didn't simply catch the wind, but they fed the mana batteries with the magic they captured from it. Something didn't seem right, though: the ship was supposed to have her sails furled when at full cruise speed.

Whatever it was, it didn't bother her for long, and for an instant, it filled her with a sense of wonder that her world was brimming with magic. From the magic that formed matter itself to the magic that allowed unicorns to bend reality, pegasi to control the weather and earth ponies to coax juicy fruit and life from the land. It was ratter beautiful. In a very intimate level, she wasn't quite fully aware off, it made sense that it was like that.

She thought of the magic of Harmony, which lent ponies their destinies and their talents, as though some invisible hoof put little magical cogs to work where they were needed; from the humblest of ponies keeping their small subsistence farm to the mighty magic that moved the heavens.

The magic that moved the heavens…

It seemed almost mundane when she thought that the unicorns used to do it and almost made Princesses Celestia and Luna not really needed, until one remembered that doing so drained the unicorns' magic. Why did that happen? Wasn't it their job to do it? Was Harmony so cruel that they would be undoing their gift by performing their job? Or was it all a lie Twilight had been told to hide an even worse truth?

What about changelings? Was there really a curse? Or did Harmony put them to perform some unknown duty Twilight couldn't understand? Did Star Swirl understand it? Did he see the princesses as something special when he saw that they could do effortlessly what he couldn't?

Did he try to do it? Was it what caused the problems that Emperor Grigor mentioned in his letter? The raging sun and the dark night? The black sun Chrysalis had mentioned? Something important was just beyond her reach, but she couldn't see what it was. She couldn't grasp it. She felt like when she was staring at the magical screens, outside Chrysalis Spawning Pool… Trying to read meaning in a language she didn't fully understand.

She stared at the stars and they looked different. They were… Alien. Their soft twinkling turned to angry flashes and they began to fade away.

Was this the sky that Sombra and Grigor saw? One by one, they blinked out of existence leaving only the moon which evanesced slowly, leaving Twilight alone on the deck of her ship, staring at the black void.

Nothingness.

A strange sense of dread crept into her consciousness like an insect crawling up her leg out of some dark hole she didn't even see was there. The sky seemed scary. There wasn't a point to fixate her gaze and she felt like an impossibly dense field of nothing threatened to swallow her. She looked at the horizon and the sea was a lightless, fading indistinguishable mass. There was no light to see anything past the airship's railing.

She took a few steps back. "Girls? Shinny?"

She called, but no one answered. She was alone, cornered at the back of her mind, a little pony under the gaping void. Her legs were weak and her breath quickened. Her heart beat too fast in her chest and her ears. Her lungs burned and her mind slipped into panic when she realized the wind had stopped. The ship's magical engines ceased their low hum. Magic itself was gone, like a warm feeling, so familiar she had never paid much attention, that had suddenly vanished, and left her abandoned in a world that looked and felt broken. Irreparably defective. A corrupted existence. Something her mind simply wasn't made to understand.

She closed her eyes, but the darkness didn't relent. She knew. It was still out there: she could feel the lack of everything; she could hear the nothingness, like a static given off by a defective phonograph. It was the sound of a dead world. There was nothing she could do and all she tried was fight back the sobs in her throat and curl into a ball in the cold floor. It was something at least, but soon, it was just a place from where she couldn't run from to escape the void that closed in on her. Like a predator closing in on its prey.

Suddenly a voice. It felt like an anchor to stay her sanity from losing itself in the starless void, and it was a voice that gave back her hope that things would be fine again.

"This is what the sky looked like then, Twilight." Luna's voice reached her and the small alicorn felt her wing over her back, giving her it's warmth of reality, pulling her mind back from the void. "It is mine now, and it will never look like that ever again."

Almost too afraid Twilight opened her eyes and they were greeted by the most wondrous of night skies, where the moon shone proudly, and the stars could almost be heard in a twinkling melody.

Slowly she rose and looked at Luna, who stared down at her, smiling softly at her friend. "Princess Luna… I'm dreaming. I… Thank You…"

"You shouldn't keep to certain thoughts before sleep." Luna admonished her like a mother telling an unruly child to behave. "The mind wanders and rarely finds its way back without its rational part. You become an easy prey for the Nightmares."

Was that how her magic worked? Luna could somehow grab the mind of ponies lost in a storm of mad thoughts and feelings and bring them back to rationality? Or was it the simple realization that they were in a nightmare that brought relief? The sight of the friendly and helpful princess amid the confusion and fear? Twilight then caught herself wondering how she had never thought of that before… Luna simply watched for ponies and their dreams. Period. Now, with her recent thoughts, she seemed to reach deeper into what seemed like an unreachable backstage of her world.

"Let us go to Ponyville and eat some of those hayburgers and soda you new ponies like so much? Maybe we can convince Celestia to disclose something to sate your curiosity?" Luna gave her best friendly smile.

Twilight shook her head. "It's not about my curiosity, Luna…"

"Well, it was worth a try…" Her ears fell.

"You said…" Twilight spoke softly, back to Luna.

"Yes." Luna acquiesced. "Ponies learned to live with it. But they feared it. They stayed inside or got lost in their travels. Animals lost their way. Many lost their sanity. It haunted their sleep, and, without me, they trembled with the residual dread of nightmares, only to be greeted by a sun that ravaged their very world. It slowly sapped their sanity."

"How did ponies deal with nightmares before you arrived, Luna?" Twilight wondered.

"Nightmares are dangerous monsters, Twilight. They feed on the fear and if they take root, they can cause all sorts of damage to a pony's mind." She shrugged. "Must have been a fruitful time for them."

That was another thing that didn't add up. Luna took a great importance in her job of protecting ponies and their dreams, yet before she had arrived, they stood generations vulnerable to the nightmares. But Twilight opted to not disclose those thoughts just yet.

"Why did it happen?" Twilight asked then. "The missing stars and the weird sun?"

"Because the unicorns lost their magic and couldn't keep up with the magical requirements of bringing the night, nor with the increasing complexity of the spell required by a damaged reality, one cycle after another. The sun became a monster that threated to burn everything, like a furnace out of control."

The same lie just better suited to what she knew Twilight knew. It saddened her, in a first reaction, but she understood… She had been convinced that whatever the reason, The Sisters lied because they thought it better. It didn't irritate her less, though. "But…"

"There are no 'buts' Twilight Sparkle. It sufficed until it could no more, and when it became broken, we came and took our responsibilities to keep it." Luna said plainly. "We repaired it and we sustain it and are sustained by it."

The younger alicorn shook her head lightly, feeling overwhelmed. Whatever the truth was both Luna and Celestia were still impressive. She felt like she stared at a force of nature, out of their control, given flesh. "What are you?"

"We are ponies. We are creatures of Equestria, given the destiny to keep the day and the night." Luna said, again, plainly. "There are no gods. No demiurges. No creators, deities, or idols. Nothing more than talents and ponies to use them. Cogs in a machine… The most wondrous of machines, but still cogs in a machine. We happened to be given those which required we live longer, be stronger, and look different. And there may come a day when our magic isn't sufficient anymore, and then others will take the mantle from us. And we will rest, as all life eventually does."

"It doesn't look like a natural system…" Twilight spoke sadly with a lowered gaze.

"What do you mean?" She drew Luna's curiosity, and she shifted from the 'larger than life speech' to a stare of curiosity. It seemed curious to Twilight that Luna seemed to be caught off guard by that question.

"Never in our history we cared for the animals, and then lost our ability to do it, needing somepony with special powers to do it. It was always natural for us to care for them." She explained, despite that curious hiccup. "The same goes for the weather. We didn't lose our ability to control clouds or seasons, and then needed somepony with special powers to do it for us… What about nightmares? Ponies stood generations without you protecting them, but I know that you take great pride at the importance of your job as guardian of our sleep. You're lying, Luna."

Luna stared at Twilight for a few seconds before speaking, as though she, herself, had a little trouble processing Twilight's words. "You can't know that, Twilight Sparkle. You don't know that it won't come to happen… You can't know the future."

She didn't say anything about the nightmares, though, and Twilight raised her voice, letting her anger at being treated like a filly get the best of her. "There is also this Emperor Grigor! And the discrepancy with our historical records! And this weird nonsense that ponies would simply let you two come and take the crowns simply because you have the characteristics of the Three Tribes! Were there no other ponies in positions of power that felt threatened? We have very old and powerful families in Equestria that certainly had stakes to the crown. Did they leave it all to you two? Don't treat me like a foal, Luna!"

The younger princess took a second to catch her breath and reorganize her thoughts while Luna simply waited. "And there is this weird feeling that… That I keep staring at a picture you and Celestia put before my eyes, but every now and then, I can hear something clicking on the other side. Ever since I decided to poke at our past, I feel like I'm being lied to!"

She sighed, frustrated, and went on, pleadingly. "If there was a huge war and you two came up on top, why not tell that story? Did you do something so terrible that it would make everypony change from your side? Did you weaponize your powers? Is that why we have laws that forbid us from weaponizing our powers, like the Elements of Harmony and Cadance's love magic? Laws that forbid you from engaging in psychological warfare within dreams? Was it genocide? Did you two steal Equestria from somepony? What was it? Did you steal the moon and the sun from the unicorns or something? What about all those things you told Cadance and Chrysalis about Chocolate Velvet? What the hay are you two doing?! What the hay have you two been doing for the last millennia?!"

"Twilight, calm yourself." Luna asked softly.

The younger one waited, keeping her gaze over Luna, which looked to the side and not directly at her, then Twilight went on. "Maybe… You're more than a simple pony… Are you… The goddess from the legend of how changelings came to be? Are you Night-Made-Flesh?"

The problem was that not even that explained how would ponies be protected from nightmares before her arrival. Unless Luna was the goddess, and took care of both the moon and dreams, but something happened and she lost her ability, but then became the Luna she knew and then took care of the moon again. Nothing made sense! Still, Luna shook her head softly and Twilight waited for a few seconds before yelling angrily at her again. "Talk to me Luna! I deserve it!"

"My original name was Moonlit Nights. They named me _Lucenotturna, _after the goddess' actual name." She smiled softly. "But simpler ponies, the common folk, and myself, couldn't pronounce it correctly, so, instead of correcting them, I took to calling myself Luna. To my naïve, little filly mind, it made sense, since I was tasked with the moon and the stars. Not to mention that I was so full of myself at the time that I considered it the most reasonable thing in existence that if I wanted another name, I should have it. It was amusing to see ponies like Star Swirl afraid of correcting a six years old filly. Well, not Star Swirl… But he thought it was cute."

Just the mental image of a group of well-dressed adults and educated ponies towering next to a foal pronouncing a word incorrectly and then smiling awkwardly instead of correcting her made Twilight giggle.

Luna smiled some more. "Celestia was Sunny Days. Did Chrysalis tell you about the Children of the Sun? They acted from the shadows and figured out we were 'The Goddesses Reborn' and they influenced Star Swirl. You have no idea how stupid he felt when he figured out we were the ones he was looking for. Turns out what happened is that they figured out our talents and started tipping him off. That they were convinced we were the goddesses was a weird coincidence."

"Why isn't that in our history books, Luna? Sounds like a cute and interesting story." Twilight frowned. "They make it seem as though you two simply popped into existence and ponies decided you should be the princesses. At least with this story about the goddesses there is some context. And what goddesses are these? There isn't any sort of records about ponies believing anything of the sort, short of legends, such as the one about Mother Farfalla."

"Because none of it was a cute story, Twilight." Luna's ears folded down. "Little Luna sitting on her big throne is a small part of the story. The rest of it was ugly and nothing good really can come out of it. Celestia told me I was spared the worst of it because of my age, but even as one of The Sisters, it wasn't as nice as you would think. This story developed in a time when ponies had forgotten civility and we didn't want to be the 'Goddesses Reborn', any more than we'd want it now! It doesn't fit the modern times, and, in retrospect, it was more of a trouble back then and we never felt comfortable with ponies calling us that. We were the baker's daughters. Celestia's perspective in life was marrying some other poor nopony and having foals, not ruling an entire world. This whole thing was thrust on us and we barely had a choice."

"Are you saying that you regret it?" Twilight asked shocked.

"No... Not really... We were given the tools for our jobs, and we do enjoy fulfilling our destinies." Luna took a step back. "But... But it was complicated."

"Is that what you're trying to hide?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. "That ponies once thought of you in this way? No, there has to be more by what Chrysalis told us. Come on, Luna!"

"It is pointless to try and hide it from you. You are too clever for your own good!" Luna fumed. "You are stepping out of line, however, and you are going to cause problems you are not ready to be responsible for yet! We did lie to you; we did help the griffons cover a large portion of their history and we did benefit from it by doing the same to our own. And we do not regret it. It was for the better of Equestria as a whole."

"Regardless, it is our history and we should be allowed access to it. I am a Princess too! I deserve to take part in such decisions!" Twilight spoke louder and hoofed at the floor in frustration.

Then the night princess frowned, and Twilight knew she, really had stepped out of line. "You deserve nothing, Twilight Sparkle. You ought to trust your elder princesses. It is true that there are mysteries and secrets we know of, but you are both not prepared to know of yet. As I have told Chrysalis she is not trusted enough with certain knowledge, so are you and Cadenza. There are things Celestia doesn't trust me to know yet. Knowledge is dangerous in a world full of magic, and you ought to know that!"

Twilight sighed loudly in frustration, which Luna thought was somewhat amusing. She wasn't used to having ponies behave like that near her. At least she believed the honesty in Twilight's questioning. Most importantly, Twilight shook her head slightly and spoke again. "Fine. What about Discord? Chrysalis told us some crazy things. What was that all about?"

Luna stared down before staring back at Twilight. "I was too young. I didn't understand. All I knew was that me and my sister were suddenly important, and we had to grab the Elements and do something with them. And rich ponies tried to murder us… Star Swirl helped us. Some important ponies helped us. And the sun was doing weird things. I don't understand Discord's motivations and I am not about to pester him about it. He has enough bad dreams about those times."

Twilight grunted with a hoof on her forehead and then looked at the other princess again, she didn't believe a word out of Luna's mouth, but also felt it had come to a point when it would be pointless to insist. "Did you lie to Cadance about Equestria being broke?"

"Of course, I did!" Luna's ears perked up and she almost jumped off the floor. "I was surprised that she believed it. I don't think that Flurry Heart could make Equestria bankrupt if we gave her an unlimited credit line to buy toys! Do tell her that… I felt bad lying to her and expecting her to be wiser. She trusts Chrysalis far too much to see that I do not."

"Alright. Can you tell me the truth about that?" Twilight asked with a hoof up, as if negotiating and Luna rolled her eyes.

"Chrysalis is going to open changeling medical sciences to the whole of Equestria, but it's filled with technical and complicated things about our biology that we don't fully understand, therefore, she thinks she could still control it for her own ends and shut us off from fully deploying it, since we'd be dependent on changeling doctors and then, she'd have something to bribe us with. But Chrysalis is not as smart as she likes to think, and Celestia anticipated that finding a medical professional from a world with much more advanced medical sciences than her own. We wager that after he's learned the changeling language and our own magical sciences, he should be able to avoid any traps Chrysalis puts in our way, and help adapt them to our own doctors. Actually, Chocolate Velvet comes from a world with much more advanced science in every area, and he has vowed to help us in any circumstance it might be important."

"Hah!" Twilight was suddenly very happy. "I knew Princess Celestia knew what she was doing with the Heartmend Treaty! Wait! What the hay is he doing running around trying to be a knight?"

"The knights you know today are very much mercenaries that hunt monsters and participate in fairs." Her expression turned sour. "And eventually bother the princesses with marriage proposals... For some reason they never bother my sister, only me."

Twilight giggled and Luna went on. "There was a time they were much more like scholars and… Well… Benefactors to society. Think of Star Swirl and of his friends. Think of the Pillars of Harmony. Many became rich and would invest their money in others and wished to make everypony's life better. They upheld the Elements of Harmony, much like you and your friends, through the ages. Though, most ponies that could reach those ideals today are satisfied with monetary aid, Chocolate Velvet is fascinated with the magic in Equestria and with ponies in general. Maybe because of his own experience in his original world, he is very interested in the pursuit of philequipy, philosophy, of magic and all sorts knightly pursuits that make Celestia sigh like an enamored filly."

Twilight couldn't hold her giggling at that description, but Luna still went on. "That is not the only reason he is here, though. Celestia has had this project in her head for a while. Chrysalis being able to assist and the timing with our deal, our need for his technical knowledge and his availability were a coincidence. There is the additional benefit that since he is in love with us, we can trust him. We do appreciate his aspirations, too."

"It is a bit weird that you two had a consort made for you, but I'm not judging at all." Twilight mused. "I'm just curious, beyond the practical reasons with the treaty, that is. Beyond that, couldn't you really find a nice 'knightly' pony?"

"Twilight, have you considered that we are immortal?" Luna asked her and the younger one nodded softly after an instant.

"No… Not really. Though it is one of those things we have a tendency of not thinking about, but I think I understand." It made sense, when she put it like that, but Twilight looked at her. "Is that why Celestia is missing a piece of her soul, or something?"

"Chrysalis is fumbling in the dark, like an idiot trying to understand things she has no basis to understand." Luna's expression of slight disappointment made Twilight think that she might have disappointed her with her question, or maybe she didn't make the right connections, still, the princess of the night grinned smugly at Twilight. "And you are in an even worse position to discuss this."

"Ouch…" Twilight grunted angrily.

Luna giggled at Twilight's reaction, then she smiled a little more softly. "Twilight, why don't you trust us? You really don't need to know about these things."

"Because I am an adult, Luna. You both have elevated me and Cadance to share your titles and now you are trying to keep secrets from us." Her eyes shifted to the side then back to Luna. "We are aware we may be hurting you both by not trusting you, but if we are right and you've done something wrong, that deserves correcting and we could not afford to stop. If we are wrong, we can always apologize. We… At least I trust you enough to believe that."

"Also, I could ask you why is it that you don't trust us!" The younger princess concluded with a nod of certainty.

"I warned Celestia against allowing you both becoming princesses. She told me it wasn't her decision to make. I didn't understand and she said that I didn't need to know yet. It infuriated me until I realized that Celestia knew what she was doing. When I learned the truth, I was dejected at my notions of impeding you both. Maybe Celestia is suffering from the same fears I did… Maybe she really knows it is best not to allow you two to know certain things just yet."

"At the same time, it is within your power to seek for these answers." Luna nodded softly. "It is a fair position to take, Twilight, considering the possible implications of your suspicions. Was the situation different, I am sure Celestia would be very proud of you, as I am, and I salute your resolution."

Twilight grinned happily. "Does that mean you'll be straight with me?"

"No!" Luna grinned like she does when doing mischief in Nightmare Night. "It means I'll tell Celestia she can hit you harder!"

Twilight wasn't amused. "Where even are you right now? Shouldn't Chrysalis have taken you prisoner or something?"

Luna shrugged. "I'm sleeping in a tower in the Bordello … Cadance's hornring probably melted away by now."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Wait… They actually imprisoned you there? Can't you leave?"

"Well, I could…" Luna pawed at the floor, a bit insecure. "But I really want Chocolate Velvet and Celestia to come save me. And Chrysalis is such a convincing evil queen… And there is this tower…"

"Oh…" Twilight grinned in understanding. "Oh! Alright."

The two giggled together for a second and then turned to an awkward silence for a few seconds before Luna spoke again, softly. "Twilight… It is possible that your quest is fair and that all that you can find is something that the general populace should know… But I beg of you… Very few things in existence have as much power to hurt Celestia as you do."

Twilight nodded softly. "I understand Luna…"

"She lives and breathes for Equestria first and then for herself. She worships the ground you and your friends walk on and I worry for what could happen if she found herself cornered against you. That is certainly why she hasn't initially forced a confrontation on your territory yet, but as you draw closer to her secrets, she'll be left without options. I've seen Celestia best kings, emperors, witches and necromancers; evil monsters, dragons and eldritch abominations from beyond the stars. But she loses to her feelings for her family every time."

Twilight felt a warm feeling of pride swelling in her chest with Luna's words, and watched as the Night Princess took flight. "Farewell, Twilight Sparkle. And know that next time we meet, I shall not be so kind. I stand with my sister."

The dreamworld faded into nothing and Twilight knew she had crossed yet another hurdle in her mission. She allowed herself some pride for her victory, even if she barely learned anything from Luna. She had earned the feeling, just a little more, that her mission really was a right one. She only hoped that she and her friends could get Discord's help next.

Morning came cold in the altitude the air ship sailed even under Celestia's bright sun. The crew had furled all the Magic of Friendship's sails and she traveled the air so fast that standing in the deck could be dangerous for non-winged ponies.

Twilight wondered if the pegasi didn't feel the cold of the wind. They actually seemed to enjoy it, like Rainbow Dash in her morning exercise routine flying wide circles around the airship. She had left Cadance and Shining Armor caring for Flurry Heart, with Miss Calcite and Spike still slept. Discord was… Being discord, talking with Fluttershy about some weird happening in far equestrian lands.

It was only when breakfast came that all of them were together, and Twilight didn't fully understand why was Cadance so delighted with the food Discord summoned with his magic, but if she was happy, Twilight was happy too. It was a lighthearted and quick affair because all of them knew that they needed to talk to Discord and the conversation itself could turn ugly if he didn't like where it was going. Fortunately, he didn't seem to notice their insecurities.

She didn't fear Discord would harm them, not anymore, but he could close doors definitively for them, or worse, side with Celestia and Luna, and then their mission would be over. This time, Twilight would be careful to let her friends, especially Cadance, assume the lead in the conversation if they felt necessary.

With the end of their merry meal, Twilight asked the Captain to take the airship to a more comfortable altitude, where her flight wouldn't be as efficient, but they could stand comfortably on the deck. She didn't bother with the presence of her guards or the crewponies, though, as they seemed to have melt into the group as part of their mission.

"Very well…" Discord was curious, rubbing his hands together. "What is so important, Twilight?"

She simply gave him the letter and their notes. And her very organized and condensed summary of their findings.

"Oh…" He rubbed his beard. The things floated in front of him and they, literally, heard gears spinning in his head. "I thought you wanted to know about Star Swirl. Celestia isn't going to be happy about this."

"I'm sorry, Discord…" She said carefully. "But this is important."

"Not really." He said, and for a brief instant of panic, she feared he might make the letter disappear, or something, but he gave it back to her and he kept a serious expression. That was never a good sign. "You could go your entire life without ever touching this and it wouldn't make a difference. In fact, I can guarantee you will all be happier if you forget this."

He grinned pointing with a thumb over his shoulder. "Come on! Change course to Las Pegasus! They're making a huge raspberry jam pool and we can get them to let us in early. With two princesses, we might even get a tour of the place!"

"This actually seems big, Discord." Cadance argued to his other side. "It's been thousands of years for this lie, that allowed Princess Celestia and Luna to stay in power uncontested."

He frowned. He didn't like what she had said, and it became clear in his voice. "You got it all wrong! And I am not telling you anything."

"Why not?!" Cadance screamed angrily frustrated. "You and Auntie Celestia owe us explanations! Something happened that she hid! It's obvious she did something wrong! That you both did something wrong!"

He laughed for a few seconds before controlling himself. "Oh, Cadance. We don't owe you anything."

"How can you say that?" Twilight's temper quickly flared up too. "By the sounds of it, millions of creatures died and suffered because of what you did!"

He waved a hand at her, dismissing the idea with a derisive huff. "Ah, your species is always suffering and dying."

"Discord!" Cadance yelled at him, flaring her wings. His dismissive attitude towards the subject infuriated her to the point Cadance seriously considered doing something she might regret later. Fortunately, she restrained herself, remembering it was Discord. He was now their friend and was simply trying to let go of the issue.

"Why don't you want to tell us, Discord?" It was Fluttershy's soft voice that broke through.

"Dear Fluttershy… It was a mess. It took sacrifices to fix and If I told you, then it would be undone. There are things that should be left in the past and have no place in today's world. I understand what their royal highnesses here want, but if I put you on the right direction, at the end of the road, you would find only bitter resentment. Old wounds that never could really heal and it could end Equestria. Literally."

Cadance frowned. "Luna said the same thing… But… Shouldn't the truth make things better? It's not just about some war, is it? About the princesses abusing their powers or something like that."

"Oh! Is that what you think?" Discord laughed, and then laughed some more, pointing a griffon finger at them. "It was not something they did. They saved you from the mess that you created! You were the problem! Well… Me too… But mostly you!"

"I don't know what happened… But it sounds like it was a long time ago." Twilight said softly, staring him around his accusatory claw. "We've matured as a civilization. We used to steal and to kill. We made wars between ourselves and our leaders have lied, cheated, took by force what wasn't theirs… We've taken lives for petty reasons. But we've changed! We uphold the Elements of Harmony… They are our morals now. Kindness, Laughter, Loyalty, Generosity, Honesty and the Magic of Friendship. They joined, not only our race, the ponies, but all races of our world… The griffons, the yaks… All of them, even the angry dragons. We join forces and we fight any evil that might threaten our world. Our home. We fought evil spirits and monsters. Homes were destroyed, but we rebuilt them. Friends were gone but we mourned and honored them. Hearts darkened, but we healed them."

Ponies listened to Twilight, as did Discord. Pegasi stopped working around the deck and the princess let her ears fold down and she moved closer to her yellow pegasus friend, hugging her from the side with a wing. "Through Friendship, we even changed the heart of the Spirit of Chaos when he, himself, had given up on him."

"Oh, for goodness sake, Twilight…" He covered his face with his lion's paw.

"Discord…" Pinkie grinned, and ponies giggled around him. "Are you crying?"

"I am not…" He passed a finger under his right eye. "It's this stupid airship and it's weird magic doing strange things to me."

He sighed deeply. "Alright, fine! Chrysalis was right. It was the same thing that summoned the wendigos that drew me to the realm of the mortals."

Twilight quickly grabbed her notepad. "Wait. What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure you are ready to learn these things, but if it hurts you, or something, I'm sure you can find psychologists with discounts for the saviors of Equestria… Anyway, it's gonna be Celestia's problem, not mine." He made himself a comfortable chair and a comfortable checkered robe, sitting on the chair. "Pay attention. Magic exists as a fundamental property of our world, and one important thing is that Magic can't move around on its own. Before you ponies, Life couldn't grow anywhere outside the place it was created because it depended on magic, and then, when you migrated and took magic with you and made it flow through the whole world; Life flourished all over."

"Whoa!" Twilight's wings flared and she scrambled to keep notes. "That is a lot of information all of a sudden!"

"Keep up, Twilight." He was slightly annoyed. "You're not in magical kindergarten anymore."

"Where was that place?" Cadance asked. Not that it mattered, but she asked out of curiosity. He simply shrugged, though, and went on.

"Your minds formed around a simple concept of one drive and a moral compass: you had a motivation and were supposed to spin it around in your heads through six virtues you were supposed to withhold. Six virtues that, supposedly, made Harmony stronger through the magic that you radiated to the world, after you were done using it for whatever you would."

"Wait." Twilight called again, while she took notes. "Six virtues? The Elements of Harmony?"

"Your six Elements of Harmony, yes. The jewels you wear are the physical representation of what Harmony was made of. I'm not entirely sure, something like that. The important thing is that it was important to keep Harmony existing that you upheld these things. And you also had your motivation... If you were supposed to be generous, kind, etc., you needed an action through which you would be generous, kind, and etc... The Animus Imperative. It is the cornerstone of your little minds." He touched Twilight's head with a claw. "It was cast into your brains even before the Elements, before you even understood that you were alive. It is so powerful it can overrule the Elements and crush them into neat little packages of self-justification."

Ponies and dragon looked confused around him, so he blew at his bubbly smoking pipe before he went on. "Never wondered where you had come from, did you? Never wondered that someone might have put you together. Forged you minds, or better yet… Put together your world. This is not questioning your minds were made to wonder about."

"Who did?" Applejack asked the obvious question.

"That, dear mudpony, is the right question." She gave him the evil eye at being called mudpony, but he didn't bother. "And the answer is… Nobody. Things started existing, and Harmony grew from Magic. It is not a sentient creature. It doesn't exist anywhere. It simply is and it seeks balance, or harmony. It tells ponies what to do by giving you this directive and expecting you to run it through the Elements of Harmony. So, if a pony is born with the destiny to… I don't know, make candy… They are supposed to make the best candy for their friends. So, they are compelled to fulfil their Animus Imperative and they have the six Elements to guide their actions."

He put a hand on his chin. "The funny thing is… Not even your creation was direct. Even that is a reflex of Harmony, rather than a direct action."

"A little clearer?" Twilight asked, confused.

"Harmony doesn't 'do' things. All of this is a reflex of it, but not through direct action. It doesn't have agency like we do. It can only steer you in the direction it needs you to go."

"So, the Elements of Harmony are a moral compass to help us fulfill our destinies, which are given to us with this Animus Imperative." Twilight mused. "Okay. I'm following. But I never knew this term. Isn't it the same as our 'Destiny'? We're born with innate talents that help us with it and that steers us towards our destinies, right?"

"Right. But, 'destiny' is an easier way for you to understand. You didn't need to concern yourselves with the inner workings of you headmeats. All that mattered was that you spread magic with you to all corners of the world and that you upheld the Elements of Harmony, and had the tools to be happy little ponies. The point of it was that 'destiny' is how you perceived the Animus Imperative."

Twilight was starting to get worried. "Discord, this all sounds very… Intentional. Designed."

"Because it was. Just not by an intelligent force, but a magical one, that caused events to follow in the right direction, deployed the right tools."

"But why?!"

Discord shrugged. "Because it existed and ought to remain existing? Maybe it was because someone or something in another universe imagined this and magic made it a reality in our world? Maybe it was a reflex of something that happened in another universe? Maybe there is no reason at all, it just is… You will go nuts trying to figure this one out, Twilight."

"How do you know of these things if you weren't around?" Cadance stared at him suspiciously, as did all the others, suddenly aware that all he was saying could've been a lie.

"Well that is because Magic is my nature, Amore. Magic is Chaos and resists Order. Too much Order and nothing will happen. Too much Chaos, and causality is completely irrelevant, making existence impossible. Just enough Chaos and just enough Order, and not only a reality can exist, but it can dream through Magic and Harmony is created."

"That is quite interesting, Discord." Rarity told him with a pleasant smile. "But I'm not sure where you fit into that."

"I didn't exist as I do today. I was… A force of nature. I was… The Chaos in the equation of reality. I was only made as I am now when ponies summoned me into existence when they sought to control the most powerful and ancient forms of magic. But there is one catch: the wendigos were animal-like. I am intelligent, I understood what was going on. Sort of…"

"Who was the 'Order'?" Twilight asked, again, staring up from her notes.

"Beats me…" He shrugged. "I suppose it's something that was never summoned into the world. Maybe we lack the ability to summon it because we are quite literally made with magic. I dunno."

Fluttershy put a hoof on Discord's leg. "How does that end in you killing ponies?"

He hummed. "So, what would happen if some ponies decided not to care about the Elements? They would do things their way. Suppose they decided that Honesty was a waste of time and they could make it much easier if they lied."

"I don't understand." Twilight shook her head. "How would that happen?"

"They could do that, and rather easily, because you're supposed to struggle with the morality of the Elements. If you weren't, you couldn't corrupt the Elements inside your heads, right? Gotta have your free-will."

"So, we are supposed to see our Animus Imperative through the lenses of the Elements of Harmony in us. But some ponies don't. I'm not sure how, but what happens then, Discord?"

"The Elements become corrupted in them." Discord made a serious expression, crossing his arms. "That is how you 'discord' a pony. Though the correct term would be 'disharmonize'. They get worse and worse until their Animus Imperative is broken, and they… Let's say… Divorce themselves from reality."

"Because of the Elements, ponies are inherently good, but if things go wrong, through their warped logic and views, they see that things are 'wrong', and it hurts them, they want it to stop, but they don't know how to fix it, because their compass is warped and nothing works. Many times, they'll justify what they're doing as fair, just… Or that everyone else is wrong, and that their way is the only one. And think themselves the only sane ones. Or, they simply don't care."

"Instead of a fair ruler, you'd get King Sombra." Twilight mused. "Instead of Princess Luna, you'd get Nightmare Moon."

Rarity gasped and took a step back in shock. "Is that what happened to those ponies in the Ponyville Militia?"

"I think it's what happened to me!" Starlight's eyes almost bulged out of her head.

"Ponies fluctuate in between these extremes... No pony is ever perfect, and no pony is ever entirely gone." Discord added. "At least not normally, and not even Sombra or Luna reached the deep end. They just couldn't come back from that."

Twilight nodded sternly. "When life doesn't treat a pony well, they can lose sight of their Elements… They become sick. And then they get worse, because things start looking futile, pointless. Hopeless. And then… They break. They must seek their Animus Imperative at all costs… Even at the expense of the Elements of Harmony. But they don't see it like that… They think that they are right, and everypony else wrong."

"We just never understood it as something inherent to our souls, deeper from within our beings. To the ponies that study the mind, it was simply how our psyche worked and how it could go wrong." Twilight frowned. "We are… Quite simple, on an intimate level…"

"Correct." The draconequus nodded.

"This thing's scary, guys! Why didn't they make it so that ponies couldn't become… Bad?" Rainbow was actually paying attention. That made Twilight proud!

"That would take our free-will away…" Cadance answered looking at her. "If you didn't have the chance of being 'disloyal', you would never be 'loyal' because you couldn't ever have done otherwise. I think harmony needs us to make 'the right choice'."

"Can somepony tell me why is it that we're talking about this thing about how pony minds came to be?" Applejack asked, somewhat frustrated to Twilight's eyes. "And not about the events we wanted to talk about?"

"Hold your horses, Applejack." Discord gestured her to calm herself with some annoyance. "This is important if you want to understand the important things in this whole story."

The pony grunted. "Fine!"

"How did that summon the Wendigos?" Twilight went back to her notes. "And you?"

"The magic ponies spread became corrupted, and then it corrupted the very magic of the land. The wendigos were born out of the chilling winds of the North. Some detail of the situation maybe it's the metaphorical distance from the Fire of Friendship. But when they summoned me, they wanted power. They wanted an advantage over the others and they knew where to look for it: they sought ancient magic, the sort that created this universe. They sought destruction in the power of creation. They knew what they are doing."

He stopped for a second. "Looking back, they could've done much worse."

"They tried to summon you? Intentionally?" Fluttershy asked.

"No. Not like that. But, with the wendigos, they might have seen their actions as the only way to survive. Then with me, they were fine, but became greedy, unrepentantly evil. That is probably why they managed to summon the Fire of Friendship and beat the wendigos… When ponies figured out that it was better to live in harmony with each other, the problem healed itself. But it happened again because they didn't learn their lesson, even with all the wealth they had, in all areas of their existence…"

"The Republic Chrysalis told us about." Cadance's ears perked up.

"I don't know about that; they simply called it 'Equestria'. It was a big assortment of different kingdoms, not too different from today. I never bothered with pony politics, but I do know that they had an enormous… You know… Ponies that made the rules."

"A legislative body." Twilight offered. "A senate?"

"Yes, yes… I suppose. The ponies that make decisions. Instead of a princess, they had a council and a 'senate'. I think the idea was that the peoples of Equestria would send a few of them to speak for them and the Councilors would listen to them and decide on things depending on what they talked about it. It was just boring."

Discord kept quiet and thought for a while, finally lightening up. "Even though Star Swirl wasn't a member of the Council, since he wasn't one of Equestria's founders, he told me he was always present. I know he had good intentions, but it was a bit on the tough side. Some ponies really didn't play nice."

"I guess it was their fault what happened?" Cadance asked. "You being summoned, I think."

"I don't know the details. But, like with the wendigos, it wasn't something just a handful of ponies could've done. Even if they were really evil. It wasn't a single pony, or a group of them. But enough of them were 'damaging the system'. It's like a dam that accumulated enough cracks, until it broke. They summoned me." He put his griffon paw on his chest.

"Okay… That all seems reasonable enough." Twilight admitted. "But why did you try to destroy the world?"

"Ah… It didn't begin like that. You ponies are a lot of fun to be around… When I first arrived, we had lots of fun. We made mischief all over the world…" He seemed, to the ponies, to remember it fondly. "The griffons were too grim for my tastes, though. The yaks were stupid, and dragons were… Rawr… Gold! Gems! Rawr… It was boring and it felt like you ponies really were the reason the world existed. But there was something wrong."

He made silence for a second and his audience waited. "Star Swirl was my friend, at least in the beginning, and the one that figured something was wrong. That I wasn't supposed to be there. He wanted to study me and he saw there was something weird with the unicorns. They scared me too. The Elements of Magic and of Generosity are supposed to be the strongest in them, but they were different. Generosity was stained black with self-interest."

"Yes…" Rarity grimaced. "That does sound bad."

Ponies stared at each other and Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Can you see it?"

"Well, not 'see' it." He raised his muzzle. "It's more like… A feeling."

Rarity shifted uncomfortably to one side and then the other. "Is it wrong… today? I mean… We're not exactly perfect."

He had mentioned that ponies weren't supposed to be perfect, but she would feel better if he confirmed that things were under control in the present time. That whole affair with the Black Sun Chrysalis mentioned was scary.

Discord laughed. "Ah, Rarity. Even you, the purest, distilled examples of the Elements of Harmony are supposed to struggle with them. No. It was not like that. It was darker and deeply rooted. I never understood why it was like that, but I knew that something was wrong, and unicorns didn't work as intended."

"You keep talking about them like they're a broken machine, Discord." Twilight wondered if he noticed that and he nodded.

"I figured 'Hey! These ponies are broken. Gotta fix them!' Since it was Generosity that was warped in their heads, I tried to put them in a situation where their lack of it would cause them to wise up or leave."

"Leave?" Pinkie asked. "As in… 'die'?"

"I didn't think of them as individuals. To my naïve self, they were like defective pieces of a machine. I didn't see 'dying' as the end of a creature, but rather as a process through which the world functioned. They were like toys, and I figured that things would work themselves out. So, I took a few bad ponies and flicked a switch in their heads. Turned the Elements upside down and it worked like a charm. The normal ponies called them The Lost Herd and they created a lot of Chaos."

"How in the hay was that supposed to fix the problem?" Twilight hit the floor with an angry hoof.

"I thought that the 'broken ponies' would be lost and isolated and that the good ones would figure out a solution to the whole mess. They had done it before, so… But what happened was that the bad ponies abused the good ones. You see, they were good, so they would help any who needed it, even the bad ones. Especially because evil isn't always overt… They betrayed them and I never noticed… But turned out that I too had a mind that could be warped into something dark…"

Ponies stared at him with shocked, gaping mouths and he looked down. "I fell in my own trap and before I knew it, I rejoiced in seeing 'justice' being done. I thought that ponies were bad, and that was why they 'broke' and joined the Lost Herd. In the end, I thought that all ponies were bad and that the whole thing needed to be remade from scratch. So, I pushed further, and the world was about to end with a flood of mad ponies destroying everything. Actually, mad creatures in general, but ponies were the best: they really messed up the normal ones."

Twilight wrote a few notes while Cadance looked at her, but then she looked back to Discord. "What do you mean with 'remade'?"

He made a gesture with his lion hand. "You ponies came from somewhere. And when you died, your souls would go somewhere and then came back, in a new life. You weren't the same ponies as before, but the magic you carried worked in the same way, so I figured that if I sent all of you to that place, you would come back 'working right' again. I never had the time to realize that you had become different individuals, that something was lost when you passed away."

He lowered his eyes. "Now I know… It was horrible. It would have worked, but, turned out ponies have feelings. I saw a crying pony and thought that they had something wrong in their Element of Laugher… Similarly, I saw a greedy pony and thought that they had something wrong in their Element of Generosity. I never thought that maybe they were too greedy because they were scared, or because they thought that others were being unfair to them."

He frowned and his eyes saddened. "I certainly didn't understand that all the suffering I was causing them was what brought even more of what I was trying to fix. I have to say… It was good to talk about this. I feel awful now, for what I did. I had... shoved it aside."

"It does make sense Discord…" Twilight mused. "From the looks of it, and from a certain perspective, if you didn't understand that ponies experienced feelings."

Cadance approached him. "You were not supposed to be there. Whatever created you didn't give you the tools to understand empathy. Maybe not even your own feelings because you never grew up like we do… Learning to be with others. You understood everything through a distorted logic."

"Some ponies fought so hard…" He looked away. "Everything lives today because of them… Star Swirl… There was his friend, Cinnamon… What a great pony she was. Celestia herself, too. She dragged you ponies back to Harmony, kicking and screaming… But everything that she and her friends did is gone from History and all you have is a fairy tale that is more… In line with your perfect little world. It seems unfair now. I wish you could know her then. She cracked me up trying to sell sweet bread to Star Swirl for five times the price."

Cadance twisted her mouth and lowered her ears, thinking hard and Twilight nodded after a few seconds. "I want to know about Princess Celestia, but is there something that is fundamentally broken inside our heads? Like… If we reach it, it makes us go bad?"

"It seems so…" Cadance nodded. "But I think it was something simpler. Maybe something happened that we weren't prepared to deal with… Older than what Discord did. Maybe as old as ourselves. But hiding it isn't the solution! If we don't know what it is, we can't defend ourselves from it if it happens again!"

Twilight agreed. "Yes, I agree, but-"

"Not to mention that this doesn't explain why is it that Celestia and Luna vanished with centuries of our history! We're talking about something that is clearly older than Discord!" Cadance spoke over Twilight.

"But that doesn't mean that it is unrelated, Cadance!" Twilight stared a bit angrily at her. "Stop trying to prove that they did something wrong all the time!

"They did! They are lying to us even now!"

Twilight and Cadance stared at each other, as did the other ponies, until Applejack spoke to Discord, tired of, and putting an end to all the guessing work and pointless accusations. "Is that why she did it? Is that why Celestia and Luna hid a piece of our history? They really mean to protect us?"

"They changed history to protect you. Maybe even themselves from whatever it was that made ponies go bad in the first place." He nodded softly. "I don't know why they hid this period, specifically, and I am sure you are right that whatever it was, it was older than all that, but I don't know how it all fits together."

Twilight said nothing, and while ponies argued, inside her head, she was sure it was something to do with that talk of Goddesses Reborn. Maybe the Children of the Sun did something that awoke something that was dormant and, maybe that was even what caused the problem with the unicorns and the heavens. Maybe, before, they didn't lose their magic to it, but whatever happened damaged Equestria, the sky, the unicorns, or even magic itself, and ponies blamed it on Discord? Maybe not a good idea to ask him right then... He was talking about what they needed him to and he might not even know.

It kind of fit with Celestia's and Luna's half-truth, half-lie, and with the story they've been getting.

But Cadance stomped the floor with a hoof. "No! You don't hide good things! If she fixed something that was wrong with the world, she wouldn't need to hide it. She didn't need to hide that to protect us from whatever it is this weird thing that makes ponies go evil! There is more to that, and maybe you don't know it, but she does and isn't telling us!"

"Cadance…" Twilight seemed to have lost part of the conversation but touched her leg softly. "Luna spoke to me in my dream… She said she lied to you about Chocolate Velvet and Celestia because there were things Chrysalis couldn't be allowed to learn for now."

She looked at Twilight and spoke softly. "She told you?"

"The secret deal they made with Chrysalis is meant to spread the changeling advanced medicine through all of Equestria, and that Chocolate Velvet has knowledge that will help them keep Chrysalis to her part of the deal." Twilight then added with a relieved smile. "They know what they are doing, and they mean the best for us."

But Cadance took a step back, "But… You just told me that. And everything will be fine!"

She stared frantically at Discord, tap-dancing nervously on the floor. "What about these ponies that Auntie Celestia erased from history? Don't they deserve to be remembered? This Cinnamon you mentioned! She was important enough that you remembered her! You made it sound like Celestia herself has done great things, but those are gone! We know of the wars and such, but… She fixed a broken world! Didn't Twilight convince you that we changed? Come on, Discord! Tell us more!"

Twilight nodded softly. She agreed… Despite their initial disagreement, Cadance was right. Kind of. She already thought that ponies needed to judge for themselves. Now, more than ever. And knowing whatever it is that is broken in them would be important.

Discord, though, sighed. "What would you two do if I helped you?"

They looked at one another, then at their friends, and back at Discord and Twilight spoke. "We'll make sure that all creatures know the truth. Understand what happened so that they can judge for themselves and if that is the case, guard themselves against this… Broken thing in our heads. And then, when everything is said and done, we can remember those ponies we have forgotten and let their examples speak for themselves!"

"You thought of that beforehand, didn't you?" He stared unamused at her.

"I did my homework. Forewarned is forearmed." She stated categorically.

"Fine… Fine." He said. "But let me warn you… You'll be going down a rabbit hole I don't think you can climb out of and be the same. And you're dragging your friends with you."

The two princesses looked back at the others.

Rarity giggled. "We're already challenging the highest authority in Equestria… What is a little insanity between friends going to do to us that we haven't already experienced?"

Rainbow laughed. "Sounds awesome! I wanna know about those ponies! And if something can make me go bad all of a sudden, I wanna know what it is."

Pinkie shrugged. "Eh… Ponies already call me crazy anyways…"

Fluttershy didn't say anything but didn't complain and Applejack wasn't amused. "I'm having _déjà vu_. We're just gonna get ourselves into more trouble for things we really didn't need messing with. Ah, what the tarnation…"

Spike and Shining Armor thought back to the club in the Changeling Rock… They could each spend some time there. They both, silently, agreed that this whole pursuit was a waste of time and needless exposure to danger. In fact, Shinning Armor would probably be calling an end to this whole affair if he didn't think that his sister and wife can take care of themselves.

Flurry Heart wasn't happy either. Why didn't anypony ask her what she thought? She was going to get herself to live with Princess Celestia first chance she got! Seriously?! There must be a law, or something, that says baby ponies can't be subjected to things such as these weird adult pony talks!

Poor Miss Calcite and the pegasus crewponies just got carried along anyway, as did Twilight's guards. But loyalty was something they understood.

Twilight showed them a smile that told them that she was happy they were onboard, but on the back of her mind she wondered if the whole problem wasn't something more complex and nuanced, something that couldn't be explained as simply as a 'lose wire' in their heads. It was too simple. Yes, Discord explaining to them how their minds worked was fascinating and explained many things through a different lens. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was still hidden away, tucked away in the secrets the Sisters had created and it would be dangerous if they were so intent on hiding it.

Anyways… Regardless of what the problem was, they would be better served by knowing what it was. She trusted modern ponies to be better than their ancestors.

Discord joined his hands. "So, what is your plan?"

"We're going to Griffinsky." Twilight smiled. "We'll see if The Lion has somethings that could shed some light into what happened. Maybe then, force the Princesses to confess and make the Senate launch a full investigation."

"Chrissy expects us to de-throne Luna and Celestia..." Cadance added, somewhat meekly.

"Oh, Chrysalis..." Discord laughed and shook his head. "Bad idea, though, going straight to the Lion. That kid is going to have all the evidence you'll need to show that Celestia and Luna did hide something, however, without the right context, it's not going to work, because you'll still not know the answers you really need. You will need knowledge about ponies that is older than History itself or you, and the Senate, will not understand why those things happened… You need to go to Manehattan."

Twilight nodded and took notes and Cadance agreed. "We're going there already. We'll need supplies. Why do we need to go there?"

"In Manehattan lives a prench pony. She is hiding there because if Celestia catches her, she'll be done for." He said, and it surprised the ponies. "She has a weird power of accessing pony 'soul memories' and, you are in for a ride when you find her. With her help, I am sure you will find a few answers that I can't give you. Most important: she'll give you… Feelings."

"How do we find her?" Twilight asked curiously, but decided against pressing Discord for more.

"Her name is Naminé. I don't know how she looks nowadays, but when it gets to the news that you two had a disagreement with Celestia... Ask around in the markets and places full of ponies. She'll find you."

"Naminé…" Twilight wrote it down. "Curious name for a prench pony that sees old memories, I suppose. Thanks, Discord."

"Discord…" Cadance called him again. "Can you tell us what is wrong with Princess Celestia's soul? Chrysalis said it is damaged, or something of the sort. Is it… Bad? Is she… Going to suffer because of it? Or something? I learned of it from Luna and Chrysalis and it got me a bit worried, because they didn't really tell me any details."

"Is it contagious?" Pinkie added and stared back when the others stared at her. "What? This is important!"

"It is something that has hurt both Celestia and Luna…. You'll figure this out with Naminé." He said with weird sad eyes, but they changed to mischievous with a mysterious glare. "And it's going to be a doozy!"

Then he returned to a more serious stance. Almost… Saddened? The princess wondered. "Some things you can't be told, Cadance… You have to see… Experience these things. So that you feel their weight."

Cadance rolled her eyes. "Oh, fine then."

Twilight was simply worried that Discord was being too serious again and she almost regretted this whole conversation. But they had come too far to go back now, and Discord turned to her. "I am going to do everything that I can to keep Celestia off your backs."

"Thanks a lot, Discord." Twilight smiled at him, despite her nervousness. "Thanks to you, I think we can actually make it."

He remained silent for a second and slumped a little. "With some luck she's going to remember that I'm important too and she won't kill me or something…"

They expected him to teleport away after saying that, but he didn't. He made the initial motions, such as raising his hand to snap his fingers, but never did. Instead he stared at the ponies. "Remember that your first impression of things will be one of preconceptions. You will see things that will need you to understand that everything has a meaning within its context."

"That sounds awful weird coming from you, Discord." Applejack raised an eyebrow.

"I simply want to make sure that you ponies don't hurt yourselves along the way and that you don't come out of it with the wrong ideas." He stopped for a second. "What I mean is... Careful with Naminé. She is dangerous because she doesn't understand the things that she knows, and knowledge without wisdom... Well... It defines me when I was created."

"Discord…" Twilight took a step closer. Most of the present didn't fully understand what is it that Discord meant, but a flash of memories brought her conversation with Luna back to her. "Did you know Night-Made-Flesh? What was she?"

"Careful, Twilight. This is exactly what I mean. Talk to Naminé and reflect on what you will learn." Then, he did teleport away, leaving Twilight with a bitter aftertaste of her nightmare, wondering if a monster made of the void lurked around, somewhere in pony dreams. It seemed like researching ways to ward off Luna's magic was in order, if that was even possible. That and hoping that Discord could keep Celestia busy enough that she'd have to worry less about her and more about their adventure.


	12. Extra - Royal Knight

**-A small note from the author about this chapter-**

**Royal Knight was originally supposed to be a spin-off one shot, longer with a stare back at Chocolate Velvet's origins, but the version of Chrysalis explaining her change of heart in the next chapter turned out awful no matter how many times I tried re-writing it. I thought it would be easier to leave it in as something that isn't entirely relevant to the main story, but I wanted to put it in because of what it says about both Chocolate Velvet and Celestia. So, 'extra'.**

**With luck, the other spin-off, 'The Court of the Harpy' ought to work much better.**

The sky was blue as was typical in Canterlot County. One or another white cottony cloud dotted the sky, bright with Celestia's sun. _Déjà vu_… He had been in a similar situation before when Twilight Sparkle and her friends had left for a picnic and found him lying in the grass, not far from their hometown. Like that day the air smelled freshly of grass and he again felt like he could just lay there forever.

Except, this time, it was not because of the warm heat caressing his body, soft grass like a natural mattress and peaceful feeling of waking up after a long night of healing sleep. He was still stunned with the several-hooves fall with an anvil tied to his neck. Discord could have killed him. Granted, he had shoved a sword through his face, but it was an accident and it was not like it could have hurt the draconequus anyway.

Ouch… His whole body hurt, and he wasn't sure, but he might have dislocated a wing.

Then the griffon intruded in his view of the nice blue sky, with his white head and ugly scar.

"You alive, kid?" His grin accompanied his gruff but well-humored voice. "That looked great. It's a shame it didn't work."

"Yeah… Tell me about." Chocolate covered his face with his leg. "Why did you come? Did Celestia put you to follow me too?"

The other had started to untie the rope on the alicorn's neck. "What? No. It just looked like you had had enough of their shit and I was getting paid, so... Not to mention, I like seeing your kind fight."

The alicorn sat on the grass. "Let me guess. Second Griffon War? Sided with the ponies against your race?"

The gruff veteran chuckled. "More like griffons and our egos against all the races of the world. Ponies simply were our target and we learned the hard way that the other races don't take it lightly when you mess with the ones that makes the day and night work… But yes. Most griffon 'veterans' that wound up as mercenaries came from that. Let's say I was on the wrong side of the battlefield and I regret it today."

His curiosity and interest in Equestrian History got the best of him over his gloominess. "What happened?"

Flying Snake went around to stare at Chocolate. "I was young and stupid, also like most griffon mercenaries. Let some radical speech get the best of me and almost got myself killed. Decided I'd prove my mettle against the commander of the enemy forces in the Battle of Saddle Valley and found myself fighting The Mare herself."

"Ouch…"

He smiled. It was a bit of an awkward smile from the grizzled looking warrior but was a sincere smile. "So, I wanted to see what you can do."

"Well, sorry I disappointed you." Chocolate replied back to his gloomy mood.

"It's okay. You're young and inexperienced. These things come with time. Ah, done!" He had finished untying the anvil and stopped for a second. "What is your story, Sir Chocolate Velvet? It's not usual for Celestia to endear herself to her knights nowadays, I hear. Nor for alicorns to come very frequently."

"You could say I got a second chance in life. I made a deal with Celestia. Now I'm the Prince-Consort and Knight of the Royal House. I'm just not very good at it."

"Actually, you handle yourself well in a fight. Well-trained, at least, and with a good head for fighting. Maybe you don't understand who you were fighting against." The griffon grinned. "Though I think you should, as a royal knight."

"Well, I do. A lot. We spar every week. Though I gotta say that Twilight, at least, doesn't hit as hard as Celestia."

"Well, she's right. Monsters are gonna hit you hard, and if you're gonna be a monster hunter, you gotta be trained the right way. My point that you didn't do anything wrong. You need more experience."

"Yeah. I suppose I do."

"That is not a bad thing. Nobody is born knowing these things." The griffon opened his wings. "Well. I'm going back to Ponyville. Princess said she might need a consultant for the local militia. It's easy Bits and the Royal House always pays in time."

"I'll be here for a while."

The other shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll tell the princess that you're fine. See you later."

The alicorn looked towards the sky. Twilight's airship was nowhere to be seen and he expected to hear the griffon's wings flapping away, but instead he heard his voice again. "Kid."

The griffon was still behind him, staring at him. "I know that stare. You're thinking. Don't. Look, I get it: you're in a position where everyone… Everypony expects you to be awesome and badass, but screw them. You lose some, you win some. It doesn't mean anything and the only one you gotta answer to is yourself. And even then, you can still be too hard on yourself. It's only going to make you feel miserable and drop your confidence. Well, I suppose Celestia too, but she is the most forgiving creature in existence."

Then the griffon took off, and flew away, quickly gaining altitude over a few seconds before disappearing in the distance. The alicorn simply laid on his side and sighed a profound sigh of frustration, letting his head lay on the grass. After a few minutes he got an urge to do something, but instead decided to simply lay there and feel sorry for himself some more, as though the solution to his woes would materialize from thin air.

What did materialize were more unproductive thoughts… He appreciated the sentiment, but the griffon wasn't the Prince-Consort, Knight of The Royal House, expected to be the best because the Princesses chose him over the entirety of noble class. Sometimes it wasn't even ponies, but yaks and griffons that would bother him over that. It's not like he regretted his decisions that led to his situation. Not at all. He simply wished he didn't have to deal with that additional drama. Then again, he did want to be a knight, he was tied to the princesses and those beget drama by the virtue of their position; so, he supposed he should have thought of that.

Maybe he just thought that things would be different. And then he caught himself feeling sorry for himself. How exactly should things be different? He berated himself for falling in that old trap of blaming everything around him, except himself, for his failures.

Everything around him was as perfect as it could be, and he had only himself to blame for his failures. From the position he had gained, to the friends that took him in as one of them, to Princess Celestia that did everything in her power to make him belong.

Maybe the problem was that he wasn't very deserving of everything, then. He knew how improper for his status he was. His mind wouldn't let him forget his insecurities, especially in his present situation.

Time passed and Celestia set the sun to give space for Luna's night. In a moment of clarity, he saw that laying on the ground and thinking sad things wouldn't help and that he should go back to Ponyville, Celestia would, after all, be worried for him, if he took too long to return.

At least he would like to think that she would. Well, she would also know that he, likely was pathetically feeling sorry for himself. If he kept that up enough, he might even manage to end her patience and ruin his new life.

No pressure.

Damnit! He was doing it again! Fortunately, no one was looking to see the big brown alicorn hitting himself over the head like a lunatic until he regained his composure.

Still that wouldn't keep the other thoughts out of his head. His eyes found Luna's stars and he let out a sigh. Couldn't help wondering if she missed him or if she was too busy doing whatever she was doing about Ponyville's local militia. He felt so childish again, considering Celestia was working and he was thinking like an attention whoring child.

Though he was supposed to be special to her, wasn't he? How could he think of her like that when he doubted her feelings for him?!

He sighed again, and stood, rising to his four legs and stretched his neck upwards, as well as his wings and grimaced at the jolt of pain. Left one was definitively dislocated and moving it reminded him of misaligned gears. He would have to deal with that.

Which way to Ponyville, though? He had kind of lost his way while falling out of control barely keeping his speed survivable with a freaking anvil tied to his neck. Come to think of it, he actually did alright in that regard. His flying training did manage to rub off something on him.

Yeah… Celestia had put him on a mission he had no way of succeeding, supposedly since he failed at it. It was odd… Every time he fought with Twilight and her friends, he had the impression that he could win, but in the end he always lost. Well, it was to be expected since Twilight and her friends, especially with Shining Armor were experienced fighters and adventurers. He had been at it for one single year, and even then, not even a complete year.

This time it hadn't been a sparring exercise. He thought it might have been different especially with Celestia talking like he did have a chance, but he ended losing anyway.

He caught himself, yet again. That line of thought was rather childish in retrospect, and he had already spent too much time feeling sorry for himself and Celestia wasn't necessary infallible and could guess wrong; not to mention it was getting cold.

He looked around and saw Mount Canterlot. Looked to the sky and located a group of stars Luna always put in the same place, a reference for travelers. Panicking while he dropped from the sky he had lost his sense of direction, but he felt satisfied he had regained his bearings, and so started a slow walk towards where Ponyville ought to be.

He could smell water nearby and a drink would be welcome. Studying the terrain, he tracked the smell and turned to his ears for the sound of running water, soon finding a small creek of crystalline water, rapid running and cold. It probably came down from underground since Mount Canterlot was too far.

He tasted the water and it was clean, good as cold water always was, especially when one was so thirsty. He, of course, saw his reflection in the water too. His chocolate brown mane was a mess, but he was mostly unharmed. Not his armor, though. He hadn't even noticed yet, but in the place where Twilight had blasted him with a magical beam, his robes vaporized, and the metal underneath pretty much melted together and became a brittle and useless mess.

Goddamnit! These things were expensive! Well, that was what he got for fighting the freaking Bearer of the Element of Magic in a mundane barding. Just how powerful was she anyway? Celestia had told him that magic becomes easier to use, in all of its levels, the more one used it. In fact, Luna had told him the same thing and so did Twilight in one of their study assignments.

Though when he did study with Twilight, they always ended discussing the differences between their worlds. Twilight just couldn't resist it: at the end of every session, she'd ask about a different aspect of his former life. Once, he blew her mind with Newton's Theory of Gravitation, and then with General Relativity. She organized a meeting with Celestia and Luna and made him talk about it until he exhausted all he knew of it. Then it freaked her out when he said his knowledge of the subjects were at the layman's level. According to her, the common pony barely knew more than the practicalities of most sciences in Equestria.

The subject also fascinated Luna, of course, though she was more reserved about it than Twilight. Later he found out princess thought her stars were better…

Another thing his mind brought up in that train of thought was that Celestia simply listened and soaked in what he had to say. Like Twilight, but instead of finding things in common, she simply accepted what he had to say, and after a long night of recounting all he could about physics in general, Twilight went home and he was left with Celestia and Luna for dinner. They talked more about magic, and maybe it was because Luna had had a few more glasses of wine than she should have, but she told him that there is more to magic than what unicorns typically did. There was ancient and powerful magic in words, feelings and sensations, in existence itself… Whatever that meant. Magic that the common pony didn't even know existed. Though he would hardly have used that word to describe Twilight.

Celestia explained that Twilight had a problem. She believed in a too rigid structure on how magic worked. The most powerful magic existed before the time of mathematics, of universities and blackboards ponies filled with extensively lengthy formulae. Magic came from the heart, not the brain. She did use music to teach him magic in the beginning, and the flow of arcane mental images that caused magic did seem like music to him.

That was why nopony taught pegasi how to fly, or earth ponies how to coax life out of the ground. And, if he managed to break free of these shackles, he would become amazingly powerful.

He hadn't taken that very seriously until their wedding night… Whoa. Digression. The point was that he was supposed to study the magical science, _thaumatology_, but the two of them kept warning him that those where a guideline. There was immense power 'outside' the rigid structure of the academical study of magic, waiting for him after he had mastered the mundane.

To be fair, he couldn't imagine Discord running a magical formula in his head, so it made sense.

Back to the subject at hoof, he did have the money to replace his armor and his robes, but it felt bad wasting the Princesses' money like that.

He raised his front leg and took a look at his shins. Twilight`s magic sword literally melted pieces of it off. She could've sliced it off along with his leg if she meant to! That is why one didn't fight without proper protection a monster capable of channeling magic or a creature with enchanted weapons.

Duskshine, Twilight called her sword, a replica of Star Swirl's Spellbound. Because, of course it was…

He angrily ripped off the burned remains of his half-disintegrated robes and along with it came his wheelock pistols, all four of them, ruined, with metals melt together and charred wood parts. They were completely useless and away they went with the robes and plated metal armor. Some plates were in useable condition, but they were custom-made and the whole thing would have to be made again and, right now, they did little more than irritate him.

He still felt bad throwing it away, though. It was a gift, after all, and it wasn't magical, enchanted armor, but it was very expensive and Celestia and Luna did give it to him. He was very happy when he first wore it. It was a shame it was ruined now. His sword was a gift too and only Discord knew where it was.

He sighed again. He'd have to wear his Royal Guard armor, the one that did have its enchantment, but was meant more as ceremonial since he'd always be near the Princesses. He was meant to 'grow out of It', eventually, when he had got his actually enchanted armor as a Royal Knight. Technically, he had been knighted already, but they were only allowed to wear such armor and wield such weapons after they have proved their skill and valor. It was meant to inspire the inexperienced into improving and seeking great deeds and making a name for themselves. He was also sure it was meant to keep the richer ponies bound to a code of honor and of humility, but also show them the value of such items. How much more dangerous an enchanted weapon was when compared to simple steel.

But sometimes, it only got in the way. Pff… Great… Now he felt like an entitled little brat.

He lifted the mess of metal and cloth in his magic, somewhat conflicted about simply throwing it away, but he didn't think it could be salvaged. It used to be beautiful, with its shinny white metal and gold embroidery. Not to mention his pistols: they were a work of art.

What? Should he bury it or something? He felt stupid.

Part of him though couldn't help imagining it as a metaphor for the good-looking knight that is ultimately useless at anything other than looking good. Especially next to The Sisters and their immense power.

When he moved it out of the way his left wing reminded him it's joint was out of place. Sure, it hurt, but it didn't feel that bad. He was sure no tendons or nerves had been ruptured and the dislocation felt like it was only partial. He could get it back into place with his telekinetic magic and then all he'd need was immobilize it and take some anti-inflammatories. Or rather a healing potion… Whatever. For an instant he wondered if he should learn the more advanced medicinal magic. Those could be useful even as a knight and Royal Guard.

Heavens forbid, he would be able to help one of the Sisters if they ever got injured, but that was an issue for another time.

He stepped on his robe and bit at it, pulling a swath of cloth. Expensive linen, but it was still cloth, and even though it was not perfect, it should suffice. Then he folded his wing and pulled its shoulder articulation back into place with a pop. The pain didn't even bother him that much. Apparently, his training did harden him a bit, after all. Finally, he tied his wing into place.

Then he turned his attention to what remained of his robes and armor.

"Throw that trash away." A harsh female voice said with its eerie reverberation and aggressive tone. "I would give my favored knight something far better, if I had one."

'Subtle…' He thought and didn't even have to look to imagine the changeling queen approaching him. Her hooves disturbed the grass and her magic radiated, oppressive, enveloping him as she walked past behind him, until she stood next to him looking down at the things he held. "You don't look very happy. I suppose I wouldn't too."

He didn't answer, instead stared at her. He had seen the queen a few times before, always in a formal situation and close to Celestia and Luna, so she hadn't intimidated him much. Typically, he avoided her despite her curiousness about him. Now, alone with her, in the dark and with insistent thoughts about her fame and his infame she looked dangerous while she circled him, staring at him in a very uncomfortable way that made him fell naked.

Well, he was, but the point was the way she looked at him.

"What is the matter?" She asked in what he identified as false concern and then disguised mocking when she looked him in the eyes. "I thought Celestia had covered you in the most expensive of enchanted armor."

She let her eyes wander again and smiled very indulgently. "Though I wouldn't cover those flanks."

"Yeah…. You probably also heard she refitted her old airship because of me too." He sat on the grass holding the armor in his hooves… And his flank away from her. "Newspapers do everything they can to make me the biggest problem in Equestria. You'd think they're more afraid of me than of the Lion."

Why was he even talking to her? He didn't even like her and it would be better for him to simply leave.

"By the looks of it…" She stared down at the broken barding again. "Celestia could be doing a better job of taking care of you."

"Chrysalis, what do you want?" His patience had reached its limit. What he felt, he realized, wasn't exactly fear. It was more a sense of annoyance. "I really don't feel like entertaining these games right now."

"I thought I should tell you some things about yourself." She was serious, like he had never seen her before, when she would usually mock and make fun of others, of him. "Celestia had your body made and needed me to keep you alive long enough. You were not born like ponies usually are."

His eyes bulged. "What… What do you mean?!"

She grinned. Just a barely perceptible grin of satisfaction while she paced around him. "You're not normal. You're a freak she created just to entertain her perverted little fantasies. All you're supposed to do is look pretty next to her. Luna said it herself."

"Oh no…" He deadpanned. "I suppose I must change to your side and let you pamper me with all my desires as though you'd want me to like you so that you would use me to hurt Celestia and Luna."

Then he faked a small sad cry and she frowned, stopped pacing around him when he scowled at her. "You're late to this party. It was one of the first things she's told me, and not a moment too soon because it seemed like every creep from Yakyakstan to Saddle Arabia wanted to recruit me in their little scheme to attack the Princesses."

"Then I think you ought to have more self-respect than that." She frowned right back at him, accusingly. "Do you like being her toy?"

First, he grinned smugly. "Well, first of all, better to be her toy than yours."

"I mean, it's not my fault your cutie mark is a heart shaped chocolate box…" She grinned mockingly. "I bet Cadance was jealous."

Second, he gave her a neutral stare and she rolled her eyes. "Not to mention that I know what I'm doing here. You don't. If you knew the things that I know, you would be begging me to follow you."

"I knew it… Luna was lying. Though I am confused, Chocolate Velvet." She grinned a little more. "I thought that you had a problem with the way Celestia treated you. Sounds like you know your worth, that I should say, seems to go beyond appearances, yet you are here, moping around like you're not happy. What am I missing? Better yet, what are you missing? Because I'm pretty sure I could give it to you."

"Seriously, Chrysalis, stop. You're not the first viper to pull this with me, this month alone. You're the fifth to try and make me their ally. Those nutjobs from the Pillars of Canterlot Society, some loser from the Male Rulers Association and three of those rising nobles that think they can take on the Crown and rule from the shadows like they're in a cloak and dagger novel. Please…"

"Well, I am almost offended you think I am on their level…" She moved in front of him, seductively, carrying her hips and letting her tail dance in front of him. "You should think more carefully on what I could do for you, and what you could then do for me, and what we could do, together, with Equestria. If we only moved The Sisters out of the way."

"Do you take me for an idiot, Chrysalis?" The brown alicorn scowled angrily at what he saw as a personal offense. "We don't even know what would happen to the sun if you killed Celestia. For that alone, I could go to the Senate right now and accuse you of plotting against her life and the entire world would fall on your head faster than even she could protect you. Then, even if you got Celestia killed, all you'd have would be a bunch of useless titles because Celestia has Cadance as her secondary inheritor and Luna as her primary and regent. If you managed to kill both Sisters, you'd still have to deal with Cadance, and then, even if you did, the empire would splinter into all its individual kingdoms. She's managed to carve for herself and her sister an unassailable position. First because everyone loves her, and second because they see her as their protector from idiots like you and the Lion."

"Oh… Nice speech, Bishop Velvet." She mocked him derisively. "When is the Church of Celestia opening its doors, so that the rest of us, the mere mortals can bask in her glory?"

She smiled delightedly next. "Also, it sounds like you know some things about the dear Sisters, because last I checked, the common pony believed that the Sun can be moved with a team of unicorns…"

"Go to hell, Chrysalis…" He turned, walking away angrily. Ponyville was the other way, but he wanted some distance from the changeling queen for the time being. His head was hot with frustration and anger. He couldn't trust himself to keep a level head talking to her.

She laughed and followed, though, keeping a small distance. "You are young. You didn't see that she started just as any of us, the humble queen of a pathetic, dirty fiefdom in the middle of what survived Discord. She never did anything that couldn't have been done by you, or I."

He sighed, stopped and turned in defeat. "What is your point, Chrysalis?"

"My point." She stopped next to him and her hoof touched his chest. "Is that you think way too highly of her. Celestia, and her little sister, are every bit the evil monsters that you think I am. In fact, they have lied and killed quite a bit more than I did."

"You see…" She went on. "Moving the sun and the moon was nice and all, but it was expected. It was the legions of Battlehorns that made a lot of difference, because normal creatures don't give their realms to be ruled by someone else."

"I don't care! I don't even know what is a Battlehorn, and as far as I am concerned, Equestria is in the best hooves it could ever be."

She rose an eyebrow, holding his leg so that he wouldn't turn away. "Do you know this weird feeling right now? It's called 'cognitive dissonance'. How come you are fine with Celestia lying and killing, but you are not with me? She is lying to you, using you right now."

His leg pulled away from hers. "It's because I doubt you would ever do it because you believed it would be the best for Equestria. The difference between you and Celestia, and Luna, is that while I'm sure you would make everything about yourself, they made it about unity and coexistence when it was possible."

"Oh, aren't you a good little trooper?" She mocked him with her unnerving smile.

He was about to tell her a collection of bad words he remembered from his original world, but a bright flash drew both of them to the arrival of the white alicorn. She wore her typical royal regalia, looking around for a second or two before she finally saw them. "Chocolate? Why didn't you go back to Ponyville? Oh my goodness! You're hurt!"

"In quite a few ways, I have heard." The changeling queen grinned at her.

"Is that so?" The princess smiled full of confidence, though Chocolate Velvet wasn't sure what she was so confident about. "I am terribly sorry then. I seem to have interrupted something. Please, pay me no mind."

"Actually, Chrysalis was just leaving. Or I was just leaving. Either work for me." His unfriendly expression should have scared both away, but Chrysalis was too annoying and Celestia was too motherly for that.

"So, I suppose that you are perfectly fine with everything that is going on in your perfect little home…" He didn't answer right away, just wished she was gone already, and she knew she had hit the right spot. She laughed jovially. "Come on, stud. Talk to me. You wouldn't be here, sulking like that if things where perfect. You know I can help. Ah… I understand if you don't want to betray Celestia since she has done so much for you already despite what difficulties you may be encountering… How about you start by telling me about yourself?"

He let out a frustrated sigh, sitting on the grass and staring distantly to Mount Canterlot under Luna's stars. "My parents were very rich. We were leaving the movie theater… It's like a regular theater that you have here, but instead of watching the actual actors playing the performance, you see a series of projected images, very fast, giving the impression of movement. With music and sounds…"

"Sounds amazing!" Celestia had sat on the grass and clapped her hooves together.

"Less pointless details, more story, please." Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

"Well, we left the place late in the night and our car was on the other side of the alley. We had crossed it before, but it was still day and it didn't seem that scary. At night, we didn't even see where that guy had come from. He smelled bad of alcohol and pointed a gun at mom, demanding her pearl necklace. He was trembling more than we were and Dad tried talking to him, he asked him not to hurt us, and said that he wanted to help. Dad had all sorts of social assistance corporations in the city… He could have given that guy a decent job, a better life."

"What happened then?" Celestia asked softly, as though she already knew the answer but felt that her consort needed to say it.

Chrysalis remained quiet, memorizing the details in his story and filing it away so that she could use them to exploit his feelings as soon as the opening showed.

"He grabbed Mom's collar and it broke. The little pearls fell to the street. She screamed and that scared him. He shot Mom." Chocolate went on. "Then he shot Dad and ran away. They died there…"

The white alicorn stared at him with her ears flopped down and Chrysalis let some worry into her voice. "What happened them? How did you survive into adulthood?"

"I inherited my parents' money, even though that couldn't bring them back." He said gloomly, but then he puffed his chest and rose his head in a heroic pose. "I vowed that I would avenge my parents and that I would fight crime. I used my money and all the resources in my father's corporate empire to make myself stronger and better. I became not the hero the city deserved, but the one it needed! Criminals feared me and I even had my own theme song. Nanananananananana Batman!"

The two stared at him for a few seconds, stuck between confusion and surprise while he 'sang' with the most annoying high-pitched voice they have ever heard until Celestia started grinning and then giggling uncontrollably. Chrysalis just grunted and angrily hoofed his shoulder.

"You are an idiot." She growled. "You are both idiots! And I hate both of you!"

Chrysalis growled some more and Celestia smiled at Velvet. "You can tell her what is bothering you."

"But-" He started, but she silenced him softly shaking her head.

"I got it!" Celestia grinned. "I'm going to sit there and cover my ears so that I don't hear what you tell her."

For a few seconds, both Chocolate Velvet and Queen Chrysalis stood next to each other staring at the ridiculous scene of Princess Celestia stepping away from then and sitting with her back to them covering her ears with her hooves.

"Fine!" He grunted. "I thought that Celestia had sent me to fight Twilight and her friends knowing that I couldn't beat them. But then, she needed me to motivate the ponies from the militia and didn't care about how I felt. Then again, I am goddamn tired of Twilight making fun of me because of me being more of a pretty accessory rather than an actual knight."

He let out a sigh this time. "I know I sound like a child. And I don't like this. But…"

He couldn't say anymore. Chrysalis was listening and he wasn't enough of a fool to believe that she would be nicer to him than Celestia was. Or even be nice. And it wasn't about that. He was frustrated with himself, his own lack of power and skills. He knew that Twilight's teasing, now that his head was cool, was friendly teasing. He could never find malice in Twilight. Or any of her friends… Maybe Rainbow Dash… But that wasn't the point.

"I understand…" Chrysalis did her best to sound understanding. Could even have fooled him if he didn't know better. "You feel cheated. Sounds like somepony made a promise that they are failing to fulfill."

They stared at Celestia's back a few paces away, covering her ears. "Well, then I don't think that she could be making my point much easier to prove."

Chocolate felt awful… She was not going to because she didn't need to. Unlike himself, she did have faith in him. Maybe he should have more faith in her. It's been a year they've been living together, and she's tolerated his childish way far more than he would have.

That thought stung. But he supposed he deserved that and in a much harsher way than he thought it. What could he say about her faith in him when his own faith in her left a lot to be desired? It was, usually, so easy for him to trust Celestia… He wished he could will these conflicting feelings away from his mind.

He didn't mean to, but his inner feelings certainly showed outside, and the changeling queen was next to him, metaphorically, like a tigress about to pounce. "Well, you certainly don't seem very happy."

He was tired of that charade, though. "You can't offer me anything, Chrysalis. And the reason I'm not happy is because I am frustrated with my own abilities."

Instead of becoming angry, as he expected, she grinned maliciously. "You are wrong. I can give you all the strength you would ever need or desire. We are unlocking the secrets of the flesh and of the soul. Sounds like you could help me even more with what you know. You have enemies, I know. We can destroy them. I can give you all you would ever need to make them suffer. Let's see… How about those snobs in the Canterlot Society for the Good Manners of Royalty? Or whatever stupid name they gave themselves? How would you like to flatten a few of them against the nearest wall? We can do that, and I know you will like that."

"We don't even need to be that specific." She grinned even more, this time like a predator about to pounce. "You could name any one of those annoying pricks that make your life a personal Tartarus because they're angry Celestia chose you for whatever she needed you, and not them."

She walked around him like she had done before, throwing her tail around seductively. He was sure it was meant to invoke a feeling of seductiveness, at least, but it was simply vulgar in his eyes and he wished she'd realize that wasn't helping her case. Still, she walked around him, like a snake coiling itself around its prey.

Regardless, he knew that she could do all that, and more.

"Or maybe, you would prefer to take revenge on the one that's fooled you?" She finally stopped in front of him, smirking and raising an eyebrow. "Maybe you don't have the abilities you would need, or maybe she would prefer that you don't."

"What do you mean?" She didn't exactly surprise him, but her words made him see one important detail: as much as he knew, what he knew was told to him by Celestia, and she could, easily, have hidden things from him. Matter of fact, it was possible that, since Celestia needed Chrysalis for whatever magic they did that made him, the queen could know things about him that Celestia didn't. Or, worse yet, did know, but wouldn't tell him.

What an easy jump it was, from that to thinking that Chrysalis might tell him things that Celestia didn't know she knew and didn't want him to know. What if she did have some ulterior motive to have him close to her. Something she didn't disclose to him, after all, she did hide things from the others… Why else would she resort to a complete outsider and not one of her own ponies to be with her and her sister?

Great. Just great.

"Well, it looks like you're not so sure anymore…" Her voice startled him, and to his panic, his inner thoughts showed. He could see it in her grin that she saw right through him.

"What do you mean?" He insisted, tried to sound angry rather than scared, hoping she wouldn't read just how unsure, bordering on the scared he was right then. "I want to know."

"Well…" She started with a silky and venomous tone. "Maybe Celestia only needs your… Body. And not in the way that I had assumed."

"What?" His head cocked back. "I don't…"

"I have some reasons to believe that Celestia intends on using you to be reborn." The queen, again, seemed much more serious, more direct than she usually was, staring intently at him. "You see, I messed around with the pieces that Celestia gave me… Do you know what for?"

He didn't. His mind drew a blank that was soon colored in all shades of horror with ideas and fears that were likely worse than the reality, had he tried to picture the kind Celestia involved in them, but also a possibility… He knew stories. Some of them absurd tales ponies told themselves about the Sisters. Some reasonable tales of not such a nice pony. Most of them whispered far away from the throne room, repeated by his fellow Royal Guards when the princesses weren't around, conspiratory musings seeking to know the truth from the one that was closest to them.

Tales of deities and of monsters. Of queens and far away, ancient wars only the princesses would have witnessed. Of ancient magic with weird powers and dangerous repercussions.

Even Twilight poked at him for answers, once or twice… He had plenty of material to fill his head with… Bad things. The idea of the monster hiding within the nice and pretty pony was too alluring, too amusing and fascinating to ignore.

Also, too clichéd.

His head turned to the white alicorn still ridiculously sitting on her haunches with her back to them and covering her ears with her hooves like an innocent child in a game. That just so happens to have a golden and respected crown over her head. Her weird mane that waves about like it's caught in an ethereal wind that touches nothing else. He knew her power. He knew her knowledge… Every bit as dangerous and terrifying as Chrysalis's fangs.

His eyes found the queen, standing next to him, staring at him with draconian eyes and a blank, inscrutable expression. Waiting for her words to fester inside his head.

Well, what about her? Every bit as evil as she looked to the point even her own changelings called her a monster. Every pony, griffon, yak and dragon – even the dragons – called her a monster.

He sat on the ground, looking at nothing in particular through concerned eyes. Perhaps two monsters, one overt and explicit, despite its secretiveness and covert methods; and another, hiding and lurking under its openness and charming ways.

"Come with me…" The whisper came in the reverberating voice of the readily apparent monster. "Leave her… I can hide you where she can't find you. Safe and sound, while I get things ready."

"What do you mean?" He whispered back, more in reaction to her own whispering than on his volition.

"I have samples of what Celestia gave me… Her flesh and her soul." She grinned mischievously; sure she had defeated an old enemy. "With them, I've created powerful changeling soldiers, and with time, I can unlock powers we haven't imagined yet in you. I'll make you any way you wish to be."

They both stared at the princess' back before the queen went on subtly seductively, promising everything and anything if he would only leave that geriatric moron sitting on the grass to find an empty field of grass where they now stood. "Do not concern your thoughts with ideas of golden and white armor or naïve knights running around the land slaying monsters for the sake of a princess that pays you no mind enough to give you decent means to get your job done. You won't need any of that and you know as well as I do that they are bloated with self-importance."

She had laid herself over his back and her legs surrounded her chest, caressing him with her velvety black carapace. "Leave the mantle of Servant and become King. To take whatever you desire, under no laws… A god among the mortals, as sun, moon and land yield under our will."

Images of black coats and red eyes, certainly with bat wings and jagged (or broken) horns floated before his mind before he caught himself being utterly ridiculous. Other than that, Chrysalis' words didn't have the effect she desired, mostly because he saw something important: she meant to turn him into a monster.

His eyes drifted back to the white alicorn, with her back turned to them, still ridiculously holding her hooves to her ears. He wondered for a second if she realized how silly that looked. But, then again, he had already learned that Celestia didn't care about looking silly. And that was when she didn't intentionally. He simply didn't know which was the case this time.

Celestia was manipulative, just like Chrysalis as a matter of fact. Still, trusting her was so much easier. On the other hand… Hoof… Didn't that just mean that she was better at that? He would be lying to himself if he said that Chrysalis' words didn't scare him… What if she was right and Celestia really had hidden motives to keep him close to her? He didn't fully understand the magic behind the things those two did to bring him into the world… It was well within the boundaries of the reasonable that she would surprise him one day and he would be powerless to resist.

The Royal Knights are known for being pompous and self-important, but they also do protect the entire world from monsters that would wreak havoc in every city they ever came in contact with. Chrysalis made fun of them because she knew he yearned for their acceptance. If not for that, she likely would never have mentioned them.

With that said, Celestia made sure he understood his situation, instead of trying to use it to sway him to her side. She also didn't try to buy his loyalty with ridiculous promises -that he was sure the queen could follow on-, but the Princess instead let him be whatever he wanted. At the time, he had the feeling that she wouldn't even force him to help them with their joint project with Chrysalis.

Maybe it was part of her ruse, so that sometime in the future she would be able to use him for whatever nefarious intention Chrysalis hinted at, and he would be none the wiser, but his heart told him the most convincing argument of all: he liked being with his princesses. Both of them. Memories of intimacy told him they felt the same… They would be vile to play such a game in their moments of passion. He couldn't keep his thoughts out of the wedding night.

Though, for some reason, he didn't have problems imagining Chrysalis actually doing so.

The bottom line was that both Celestia and Chrysalis, could be lying to him, but one of them didn't try to buy him with promises of power and ridiculous abilities. Instead, she trusted him to make his own choice, and let him struggle in his own personal battles. While ridiculously sitting on the grass and covering her ears.

He sighed once, deeply, and then he stood on his legs and walked slowly towards the white alicorn without a single stare towards the other.

"You are making a mistake." He could hear the anger in her voice. He didn't answer though: he closed his mind to her or else he might never make a decision. That infuriated her even more. "You are unbelievably foolish if you think she didn't plan for this! Under that ridiculous display of hers, she knew every word out of us and you have no idea what she would've done to both of us had you chosen my side!"

He ignored her and approached Celestia, still sitting on the grass, covering her ears. A light touch on her back roused her and she smiled at him.

He smiled back, a little shyly. "Let's go back to Ponyville?"

Her hoof touched his cheek. "I'll be right behind you."

And with that, he started on his way towards the small pony town. Celestia stood and turned to Chrysalis, though. The queen managed to sulk angrily, but the princess didn't find it endearing as she approached her.

Chrysalis spoke first though, with her typical mocking smile. "What did you do with him to make him into such a loyal good boy?"

"I treat him like a pony, not an asset. That's 'the secret'." Her voice wasn't very friendly or match the queen's lighter tone. In fact, Celestia didn't look like she was in the mood to entertain any of Chrysalis games. "What are you doing here?"

"I wasn't aware I am not allowed to roam freely, Celestia." Her mocking smile became even deeper.

"Do not test my patience, Chrysalis. There was no need for this childish game."

"Oh… You are worried that you could've lost him." Her mocking tone was starting to get on Celestia's nerves. "Sounds like that it was the perfect idea."

"I trusted him enough to know that he wouldn't turn his back on me." She said. "But your irritating game was a provocation that you could have afforded to avoid."

"And you…" The queen narrowed her eyes, staring angrily at the alicorn and poking at her chest with a hoof. "Could have afforded to be a little more forthcoming with your little scheme. Luna has just told me that you came up with your dreamy knight in shining armor purely for… Carnal reasons."

Despite her best efforts, the princess simply could not stand the idea and her anger crumbled in a fit of laughing. The queen smiled at that, and paced about, in front of her from one side to the other like a prowling cat. "I am glad you find it funny, Celestia. Because I swear on the Changeling Rock I did not. And I am also ready to know the real reason behind this whole drama with his creation, because as you know I have invested significant resources into this project. He had better benefit me in one way or another."

"You are seeing this through the wrong mentality, Chrysalis." The princess said calmly, after regaining her breath. "This is not about you helping me. I didn't need you."

"Nonsense!" The queen exclaimed triumphantly. "Are you actually going senile? You needed me to keep him alive!"

"You needed me, Chrysalis. I could have waited for another millennium if I had to. But you could not." The princess remained calm. "The changelings wouldn't have you. The ponies wouldn't have you. Neither would the dragons or griffons. You had managed to make an enemy out of every single government and even individuals that could have helped you out of charity or even self-interest. Mostly because you never gave a chance to peaceful coexistence, but also because you tried to subvert or abuse every attempt at helping you. When Thorax became king, nopony cared that you had left and that you were going to die. Alone and starved in some Harmony forsaken hole."

She was furious. If she could, she might have murdered the pony in front of her right then and there. She inhaled deeply through flared nozzles and stared as though she could set Celestia on fire by its sheer intensity.

None of that perturbed the pony, who simply remained calm, stoically staring back at her.

When, in a few instants her inner fury had run its course, the queen relented and closed her eyes softly. She backed out, sitting on the grass with a heavy sigh.

"I am terribly sorry, Chrysalis." Celestia said sympathetically. More than the other liked. "This is a terrible thing to hear, but it is the truth. You are between friends now, though. You don't have to act like that all the time, and no one has the desire to hurt you. In fact, we could have a much easier and fun time if you understood that."

"Oh, spare me, Celestia." She rolled her eyes. "You're not my friend. You are hiding things from me. Things that are relevant to the deal we made."

Then the princess' eyes narrowed. "So are you. But I am giving you your space. I am trusting you."

"Right…" Chrysalis almost choked on her words and chuckled nervously in a most uncharacteristic way for her. "I better go, now. I… Well, Luna needs me."

She backed a few steps and them her green-tinted magic teleported her away, leaving the Princess alone next to a small magical scorch mark in the grass. She didn't linger however, going after her consort at a slightly hurried pace.

She soon caught up with him, who looked back at her approach and smiled at her.

"Are you feeling better?" She asked, while she took the lead in the walk.

"I am… She… Uh… It was a bit unsettling."

"Chrysalis isn't the problem, Chocolate Velvet. Your insecurity is not cute. It is not endearing." She said without looking at him following her. "If you cannot trust me to be honest with you, then I cannot trust that you would do the same to me. If you do not trust me intrinsically… This is not going to work. Not with me, not with Luna."

Then she stopped walking and he stopped next to her, looking at her, whose eyes aimed at the ground. "We wanted a lover. A companion to share our long years. Not a foal for me to raise. Especially because Luna would simply lay that on me, being the older sister."

"I understand, Celestia…" He said calmly. "I have a question for you though…"

He couldn't remember ever seeing her put such an angry expression before but didn't have time to react. "I could have just left you lose in Equestria, but you chose to be with us... Did you join me simply because it would give you a higher status? Because of my access to resources?"

"What?" He grimaced and took a step back, blurting out words before his head caught up with his mouth when he understood her point. "I mean… Ah… I'm sorry… You're right. You won't hear of this again."

"There is more I need you to understand: yes, you could have beaten Twilight. She and her friends are used to fight monsters. You have the training of a Royal Guard… Fighting ponies is included in your job." She frowned a little more. "Yes, I have used you to motivate those ponies… It is my job to use ponies who put themselves at my service. That is why I need you to trust me."

Finally, silence set in and they walked in silence for a few minutes, under the starry clear sky. He followed her under a little cold air, but not enough that it would bother them too much through their coats, and the grass made for silent steps. He spoke softly when he did. "Chrysalis said some things I think you should know of."

She had softened a little. "I am sure she did. Chrysalis has a tendency of becoming arrogant when she thinks she is winning and of giving in to anger when she thinks she is losing. In the meantime, she is conniving and self-centered… We will talk about it later. We'll see to your injury once we're in Ponyville. Then we dinner and after that, you can tell me all you need."

They walked in silence, again, for a few more seconds, until she turned to him again, and her horn glowed with its golden magical aura. She grabbed his left ear and pulled it like he was a misbehaving child.

"Ow! Celestia! OW OW!" He protested but her magic didn't budge in the slightest and he was sure it would rip his ear off before he escaped her magical grasp.

She stared at him with a deep crimson tint in her cheeks. "I swear I am going to make you regret vanishing on me like that!"

"Ow! Okay! I get it! Let go!" He paused for an instant. "You're sending some very confusing messages right now!"

"Hush." She pulled at his ear, forcing him to walk faster and in front of her. "We'll discuss this too when we arrive at Ponyville's inn. Make haste!"

He broke into a panicked gallop with a squeak and she followed, flapping her wings angrily. "I will teach you rascal to respect your matriarch!"


	13. The Stupid and the Petty

It was very early morning and the sun had just begun its journey, flung across the sky by a pony Cadance thought she knew well. Flurry Heart slept peacefully with Shining Armor in the Magic of Friendship's private room along with her maid, Miss. Calcite. Most of Twilight's friends still slept there too and somehow it bothered her that she felt she needn't worry that they slept right next to Shining Armor without her presence.

She wasn't in a very good mood which she knew was very atypical for her especially with such a nice day all around her. Just a few clouds decorated the blue sky and Twilight's airship flew fast at a high altitude with a relaxing wind. Rainbow Dash kept to her morning exercise routine flying laps around the airship and the crew minded their businesses.

Maybe she kept thinking too much about those books that likely romanticized the past way too much since she left the Crystal Empire. Especially because 'the past' wasn't what she thought it was and that made those books even more fanciful. She was also still frustrated with herself at her failed attempt at playing the politician as ponies did in those books. She felt so foolish too, but she was drawn to those stories about the powerful matriarch that united the land.

She was bored, and boredom bred ill thoughts. She loved feeding and bonding with Flurry Heart, but the baby needed her rest after her meal and Cadance often was left wide awake after. In the Crystal Empire that wasn't a problem because she could always find something to do or she could call her aunt via magical mirror and talk to her about something that happened. Something she could need assistance from her age-old wisdom.

She never really connected a lot with Luna but she was her aunt and Cadance both respected and enjoyed her company in the many times Luna had approached her and they did some pleasant thing. It even came to the point that she sought Luna's company once or twice.

They mostly watched the stars and Luna sure loved them and was quite proud of her 'art'. It got a bit overbearing at times, but Luna was a pleasant company nonetheless and Cadance enjoyed what time they spent together.

Then there was Celestia. The mighty Celestia. Queen in everything but title for whatever stupid reason which both eluded Cadance and seemed irrelevant. The closest thing Cadance had ever had for a mother, even warmer and closer to her than the old matron of the orphanage she lived as a filly. Her power was undeniable and for the past few days it felt unbearable over Cadance's head.

She liked Celestia too much and was beside herself with happiness at the pride her aunt radiated when she was ready to take on the Crystal Empire, but after the start of their journey she felt betrayed and wasn't sure she could trust her beloved aunt anymore. Sure, she had told herself repeatedly that Celestia wasn't a bad pony and that everything certainly was justified… But deep inside she was hurt. She wondered if Twilight felt like that too.

Probably so, but not in the same way: Twilight never wanted to be a princess to begin with. She never wanted to wield power and make things happen the way she felt was right. Probably because Twilight had been a privileged child from her birth with a nice family and was recruited quite early to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns.

At the time Cadance had already been adopted by the Princess as her niece. Not as a daughter, just her niece. What a strange detail that was considering recent discoveries. Like Blueblood who didn't even get a title of princedom but an archduchy. It was an important one though: he was responsible for Canterlot County second in richness only to Bay County. But it contained the capital city and the Royal Court.

Well Cadance knew that the tile of Princess worked different than it did in other countries before Modern Equestria and other parts of it. A Princess was even 'more' than a Queen. The later would be somepony who holds power for whatever reason, mostly heritage, while the former was more than a ruler. She was supposed to be a guide a leader as much as a ruler. In practical terms it only meant that Cadance was supposed to do what Celestia told her to and was the administrator of her empire.

Twilight was a peculiar example since she never bothered with the political side of her position and was spared the same obligations Cadance had to contend with. Especially with Mayor Mare taking care of the city that was already under Canterlot County and the Heartland Archduchy.

The problem was that Cadance sometimes felt that things were not as fair as they could be, and this feeling had surfaced with a vengeance after the routine of the travel reared its head.

The Sisters ruled all. Celestia had the Sun and Luna had the Moon. Literally everything and the heavens. Twilight had the Elements of Harmony and along with her friends she was an emissary of Friendship and made it flourish everywhere. What did Cadance really have? A plot of land that wasn't good for much other than tourism and if not for the crystalized metal the new airships used that would be all. And, as soon as the market was saturated that would be a big whatever. Or worse, as soon as other places managed to manufacture it.

Cadance did have a unique and impressive power over Love but she just simply wasn't allowed to go around making ponies fall in love. It was a waste: so many ponies she knew loved each other but never managed to express their feelings until it was too late because their special ponies had already made commitments. Fiery passions that lit in secret and died in silence while she was forced to watch and do nothing. In the end it felt like ponies loved The Sisters because they were so good at ruling Equestria and were so powerful. That they loved Twilight because she was a beacon of everything a pony could ever strive to be. Cadance was just the local ruler of the cold place nopony really liked visiting more than once for the novelty. She could still remember the mean remarks journals made about her receiving a city from her aunt that materialized from thin air.

How come Twilight could go around doing the friendship patrol and Cadance couldn't use her very own and unique power?

Twilight always was better than everypony else, after all. The little wonder foal… Youngest filly to Celestia's school. She didn't even take the courses on political theory like Cadance did. She never went to the classes reserved to future leaders and rulers like Cadance. Instead Celestia simply sent her on her way to become the great Princess of Friendship, the Bearer of the Element of Magic, while Cadance sat her flank administrating the cold plothole of the world in Celestia's stead.

It was not Twilight she resented though. It was her aunts. They were the ones that were always in control. Oh, how she would like to see Celestia and Luna trying to explain something to the whole of Equestria for a change.

Her thoughts were interrupted when one of the pegasus crewponies called an alarm. "Look lively, lads! Airship astern!"

Cadance's first reaction was looking around, high and low in all directions because she had no idea what an 'astern' was, until she noticed the crew running towards the ship's back and she followed them, along with the others that came out of the private quarters and from the underdeck.

"Where are they? Who are they?" Twilight asked nervously and one of the pegasus crewponies pointed at a golden speck against a cloud.

Twilight squinted and more than a few ponies onboard imitated her until they finally saw it. "Wow! You guys have good eyes!"

The Captain approached with a spyglass and gave it to her who took it in her magic and looked through it. She saw an airship, not too different from hers, but the hull was deeper, and she had a wider beam. The hull was crystalized metal, like her ship, but it had a golden tint. Not only that, but that thing had a battering ram and she was positive she saw at least two front-side cannons and a ballista!

"Magnificent…" A deep green pegasus with a black bandana frowned sarcastically. "The Gold Pricks."

He was promptly chastised by the Captain via his hoof forcefully connecting to the back of his head, while Twilight simply lowered the spyglass. "The what now?"

"Gold Pricks…" Another pegasus sighed with annoyance. "T'is how the crews call the Royal Guard in the Manehattan Bay area."

"You guys were pirates?!" Shinning Armor gasped while Cadance and the others busied themselves giggling with different levels of modesty.

"We was, your highness." The Ship's Captain said calmly. "Got caught, did our time and got pardoned."

That notwithstanding, the unicorn stared angrily at his sister, who put a hoof on her chest. 'What? They're hard-working ponies!"

"Pirates are the opposite of hard-working, Twilight! They take what others worked to buy!" He shook his head. "You put my baby and wife in a airship full of pirates!"

"Ain't like that, Prince Armor." The Captain calmly shook his head. "Tis the life. The community. We live isolated and we share amongst ours. We did steal, aye. But we paid for it."

"You share what you stole, while you hid from the law!" He pointed an accusatory hoof at the Captain, but then he touched his forehead and sighed. "I'm sorry… It's just…"

"We understand, your highness… A pony of the Guard wouldn't like us. No hard feelings."

"Relax, Shinny…" Cadance grinned next to him. "Twilight knows what she's doing."

"Can't you stay on my side?"

"I'm sorry…." She giggled behind a hoof. "I'm still not over you being the Captain of the Gold Pricks."

He simply grunted and turned back to the ship's captain. "Are they gaining on us?"

"Nay." The other looked through his spyglass again. "We're losing them quite fast."

"So… False alarm?" Pinkie wondered.

"Nay lass. They're onto us." The Captain looked worried.

"But… If we're faster…" Pinkie insisted, letting one ear fall to the side of her head.

"They're hounding us, Pinkie." Shinning propped his legs on the railing, staring at the pursuing ship. "They're likely coordinating with ships from other detachments and are likely to not leave us in peace."

"Hum…" Fluttershy stared at the ship and then at the ponies with her, and then back again. "They're not going to fire shipboard weapons at us, are they?"

"Nah…" Shining shook his head. "I don't think so. And if they do, I can protect the ship with a shield spell, and so can Cadance. We should be fine for now."

Twilight also kept staring at the pursuing ship and rubbed her chin. "I want a meeting so we can discuss how to best deal with this. As soon as we're done with breakfast."

The others agreed.

It was too damn early; she had slept way too little and she regretted messing with Chocolate Velvet the last night. Not only Celestia had defeated her, without even trying, but she felt bad she caught herself trying to 'do wrong'. And worse, Celestia had trusted her while implying that she knew Chrysalis was up to no good. Again. Damnit!

Fortunately, Luna was there to help her alleviate her frustration. Luna seemed to understand her.

She also regretted, almost as much, tasting that stupid drink the crystal ponies made for Luna. But it was all worth it. At least until the present moment when she wasn't sure if her headache came from the hangover or if it came from the present situation.

She sat at a table almost dozing off next to her best eggmaiden and two of her soldier changelings. Also, in front of her was one of her Praetorians; the one whom she'd unfortunately named Limpy. The queen had to admit that her regard for Shimi, her eggmaiden, had raised even higher because her patience remained unwavering while her own plummeted faster than an enemy of the Five Herds into one of the Manehattian rivers. And she was his mother. Well technically she was mother to the whole Swarm but that was beside the point.

The shiny silvery changeling sighed. "One more time. What is your name?"

"Limpy." The big, scary, naturally armored and magically mighty formidable, biologically tuned killing machine that was the Changeling Praetorian said with his accent Chrysalis had no idea where it had come from.

"No. We want you to understand that your name is not Limpy anymore." The patient Shimi said. "Your name is now… Uh…"

She looked at Chrysalis. "What was his new name again?"

Chrysalis rose her head from her hoof and thought for a second. "It was… Hum… Steve… There."

"Your majesty you can't call a changeling 'Steve'." One of her soldiers frowned.

"I just did."

The eggmaiden sighed at the queen's dismissal but it didn't bother her that much because she knew it was futile and she was stuck with her queen no matter what. "Very well. Your name is now 'Steve'. Understand?"

'Steve' nodded positively and 'hum-hummed' so. The changeling doctor then smiled and asked him again. "So, what is your name?"

"Limpy." His certainty was enviable.

Chrysalis' head found the shiny crystal table with a bang. Her horn hit the table and sent a small shock from its root, but she didn't care. She had come to a point she just couldn't feel physical pain anymore. The doctor simply sighed. "I've told your majesty… It's been imprinted. We can't just change a changeling's name like that."

"We change literally everything about ourselves! I refuse to believe I can't teach him a new name!" She then turned to her formidable soldier. "Why don't you understand that I want to give you a new name!? 'Limpy' is a disagreeable name and I want you to have a beautiful name. Perhaps an intimidating name since you are one of my great elite soldiers."

He frowned. "Mother! You would never give me a disagreeable name!"

The queen inhaled and exhaled ostensibly. "I am sorry, but I did give you one. I have a terrible sense of humor but now I am trying to change your name! Princess Luna said that I should, and she is right. I am trying to be a better ruler and mother, so I need you to understand that 'Limpy' is an ugly name."

"Don't you worry mother!" He frowned full of determination. "You can test me all you need. I won't fail."

"I… What? Testing you?! What in Tartarus are you talking about?"

"He's rationalizing it. He's convinced you're testing him… Somehow…" Shimi said unsurprised. Damned if she knew how their heads worked.

"Unbelievable!" The queen growled. "I am not testing you! I am giving you a command!"

"But all names are pretty." He complained holding his hooves to the table in distress.

"What?" She craned her head in confusion. "Who taught you that?"

"It's in Princess Twilight's book!"

"What?" The queen asked again.

His horn shone with green light and a book materialized in his telekinetic aura. It was a beautifully crafted leather-bound book with a velvety red cover and golden letters that read '_All Foals Are Beautiful_'.

"What the…" She snatched the book from his grasp and opened it, then started flickering through and her scowl got deeper and deeper the further she went. "This is a book for foalings! It is meant to prevent little abominations like that pink filly in Ponyville from realizing that her mother is worse than I am and commit suicide or something! Not to mention you are not a child! You are mommy's big killing machine!"

"But I don't like this new name!" He frowned like a child about to throw a temper tantrum. "You named me Limpy and I'm bloody proud of it!"

The queen scowled again and held up the book for him to see and spoke in her angry voice. "Whose head do I need to put on my mantlepiece for this?"

There was a bit of a silence among the changelings in the room and Chrysalis felt compelled to start executing changelings at random until she got an answer but that probably wouldn't go very well with Celestia and one of the two soldiers did tell her eventually.

"King Thorax authorized a bunch of reading materials my queen." The one on the left said. "It probably was one of Princess Twilight's suggested books… You know… With the friendship crap and all that."

The Queen stared at the damn book and sighed, next holding her hooves to her face in exasperation and then she frowned while she skimmed through the book some more. Maybe she could find something in there that would allow her to make Celestia let her kill Thorax and then stuff his body and display it next to one of her specimens in her private quarters. But that wouldn't be very likely, and she might eventually miss him.

"Hum… What now your majesty?" Shimi's ears flopped.

"I'm going to tell Luna to read Twilight's book! Problem solved! All names are pretty now, thus saith Princess Twilight Sparkle!" She said with a grin and gave her soldier back his book. "There you go Limpy! Now I need you to get Bossy for me."

A white flash manifested on the other side of the table and interrupted her. Discord appeared before them holding his finger up about to say something.

"No." The queen said.

That surprised him. "No what?"

"Whatever you're going to say the answer is 'no'. I am tired Discord. Too tired for you. I drank too much and I spent almost the whole night awake with Luna and now my head hurts."

"Too much information Chrysalis." He crossed his arms. "Anyways I need your help with something. It's more important than whatever you might be doing."

"Why are you bothering me?!" Her face turned to a pained expression. "Go bother Celestia."

"Celestia is the problem. I need you to-"

"No." She refused to listen.

He snapped his fingers and a rope tied itself around her muzzle then he ignored her malevolent stare. "I need you to help Twilight. She needs to talk to an important pony in Manehattan and Celestia is going to be on the way. So, you can start by distracting Celestia."

Her eyes, in a very uninterested way, still said 'no'. He sighed. "You can do 'drink too much and spend the whole night awake' with her too…"

Her eyes opened suddenly, and she tried to speak through her tied muzzle but all she managed was a series of unintelligible mumbles. "Good. See you later."

"Wait!" She finally yanked the rope from her muzzle and raised a hoof. "What is happening?"

"You know. They've talked to you. I'm going to help Twilight and Cadance figure out that whole mess. By keeping Celestia busy and out of their way."

"About Emperor Grigor? About that whole mess of erased history? Are you mad?" She scowled fiercely again. "They are going to ruin everything if they give the Lion something he can use against The Sisters! That jerk already has too much legitimacy and I don't want him spoiling my view from the House of Majesty in the Senate!"

Then her headache returned with a vengeance and she put a leg over her head. "Ow… Wait… Ouch… Damn."

"Do you need a minute Chrysalis? Really, I can wait." He grinned quietly and she grunted and stared at him as though she could kill him with her eyes. "I am confused, however. I thought you hated Celestia, Luna and Starlight Glimmer with a passion. Also, Twilight. And…"

"Shut up!" She yelled as loud as her headache would allow and everyone made silence. "They're… Helping me now. Besides, I don't think that Celestia is going away anytime soon."

"Aaaw… Did you make some new friends when I wasn't looking?" He pulled at her cheek with his lion's paw and she batted it away with a hoof.

"Enough! What is it that you want you infernal…" She simply grunted in anger.

"I told you. You need to distract Celestia from them."

"Why would I do this?" She grunted again. "I want to be on good terms with The Sisters and couldn't care less if Twilight and Cadance are sad over this waste of time."

Celestia was nice to her. So was Luna. Chrysalis wished to be in good terms with them and not only because it was ultimately beneficial to her but because Celestia did have this loony bin of a world under control and she wanted Chrysalis' changelings to be well.

Her eyes drifted to Limpy while he watched over the draconequus like a guard dog about to jump and rip his throat out at the smallest hint from her. Not that he actually could do that, anyways. There was also Shimi with her concerned expression and then at the couple of her soldiers in the room, both bored and uninterested.

If the Lion managed to oust the Sisters thanks to Twilight and Cadance being insufferable idiots, her changelings would again be in danger. War? That would be the least of her worries. The Sisters are the thing keeping the world from turning against her children and The Lion wouldn't think twice before annihilating them and claiming to have cleansed the world of the threat they posed. That is if he could fight Chrysalis… But the point is that the Swarm couldn't fight the whole world.

Although this weird griffon magic that resurfaced recently had an unknown quality to it and that got her worried too.

Regardless, Celestia would have her children thrive and live happily. Being respected. Being loved. Being themselves. In the last months for the first time since the birth of their race the changelings could go wherever they pleased without disguising themselves. It was because of Celestia's student and her own student. It was because of Celestia's way worked in some weird way Chrysalis didn't understand yet. Ponies respected her and trusted her that she knew what she was doing. The last thing the whole damn world needed was The Sister's legitimacy being put in distrust.

The Lion was dangerous. More dangerous than Tirek or the Storm King or King Sombra ever were… Chrysalis knew the kind. He didn't want power. He didn't want victory. He wanted to subjugate to destroy and claim that he did it. Just like that prick from the past that Twilight and Cadance insisted on messing with. Not to mention that she could seduce and manipulate her way with those, but The Lion was… Fanatical. Immune to the luxuries she could provide or to common sense.

It hurt her to admit, but she was afraid of him.

Memories of centuries ago, of Celestia systematically destroying the ruling families came back with a shudder. The Lion was dangerous, absolutely, but so was Celestia when she was angry. She didn't want to think of what she could do to him, or her, if they managed to break her serenity. The difference was that she was on her side and wanted everyone to play nice with each other.

Then it hit her. And it hit her so hard she covered her eyes with her hooves and sighed profoundly. "For fuck's sake. I'm becoming my mother."

"Actually, Farfalla was much more beautiful than you are… With that golden mane and eyes of hers. She also had a much nicer temper." Discord mentioned casually. "But if you are concerned about the Lion you should know that he is under control."

She didn't have the energy to be angry at him or at her soldiers' inane giggling, but she did think that Limpy's murderous glare at Discord was cute.

She shook her head and sighed in defeat. "Discord I'm in enough trouble as it is and if I start getting in Celestia's way she is bound to lose her patience with me. More importantly The Lion is not going to help me, and he is bound to gain leverage with the fruits of Cadance and Twilight's research. Whatever they find there will uncover this mess about Celestia's agreement with the griffons that rewrote History. This whole quest of theirs is a problem especially now. Especially for me."

Not that she expected Discord to understand a smidgeon of how politics worked in the Equestrian Confederacy.

"Oh, come now, Chrysalis. I know you are still hiding something from Celestia. It is your nature to lie just as it is mine to cause trouble." He smiled smugly. "Not to mention that you are wrong: I don't know what the problem was, but Celestia fixed it and that was much bigger and older than the griffon's case of egomania. Probably as old as ponies themselves."

"How does that help?" The queen stared inquisitively. "And how are the two things connected?"

"It was a chain of events Chrysalis. Things started going wrong at the same time Grigor started his murderous spree, yes. But that was a repercussion of whatever happened in the past. It was a coincidence, or not, that Celestia started unifying Equestria at the rough same time the griffons were happy to rid themselves of Grigor and they helped each other. They got rid of their dark evil emperor and all the mess he created, and Celestia hid whatever caused to the problem to begin with."

She had thought of separate events… It had never occurred to her that the whole mess was connected, one long age-spanning chain of events. Suddenly things clicked in place and she craned her neck thoughtfully. "Ah. Wait. The mess you've created was part of something bigger."

"No Chrysalis. That is the thing: some ponies were evil, but they were not evil just then. Whatever happened that summoned the windigos happened. It was an ancient problem. Something they kept doing that corrupted Harmony over and over until Celestia put it to rest and healed the world. It might have had something to do with the griffons and their big bad emperor. Or not… Doesn't matter. The important thing is that Celestia hid whatever it was, and that seems to have solved the problem."

She didn't seem to react to it. He thought it curious but waited until she finally scowled at him. "Discord what actually happened? Because I'm having trouble understanding how exposing this thing again won't simply make it worse, if Celestia saw fit to hide it."

"I don't know. I really don't know. Celestia is the only one that does. But ponies changed." He offered her a lion's paw. "Twilight's convinced me that they are ready to understand and face whatever the problem was. And I am guessing Twilight, together with Cadance, can figure it out. With some help. That is why they must get to Manehattan and find a pony called Naminé. She is the key, otherwise all they will have is evidence that Celestia did hide something and THAT would help the Lion."

"Celestia disagrees either way." The Queen argued.

"Well, Celestia is wrong!" He put his hands on his hips. "She does that from time to time. Ponies have changed and in no small part due to her. I have! It's about time she realized that too."

Chrysalis wished she could say that she changed too but kept that tidbit inside her head.

"Then why didn't you send them immediately to that pony?" She cried, instead and raised her hooves frustratingly, but he only rolled his eyes.

"Because I don't know where she is neither how she looks now. Manehattan is a big city. She is hiding from Celestia and will only come out when she realizes that she can help the two princesses."

"What is her deal?" She was becoming suspicious. "Why would she come out of hiding because Twilight and Cadance want it?"

"How should I know? Some ponies are so crazy they make me feel normal!" While she was suspicious, he was becoming impatient. There was much to do. "I only know that piece of work because she pestered me about reading my soul memories or whatever. Then she vanished again when she gave up."

She took a few seconds processing what Discord had said and finally admitted defeat. She didn't like it. She still thought that this whole mess would best serve everyone involved if it remained buried. But Discord wasn't the type to commit stupid mistakes. He thought that this would be beneficial… She might as well cooperate and earn some good girl points after it's all said and done. She also didn't like the idea of Celestia being around until she figured a way to deal with her Praetorians, but It occurred to her that she managed to dig her own grave deeper and deeper the more she tried to fix this situation by herself. Maybe swallowing her pride and allowing Celestia to help would fix this whole mess.

No need to disclose any of that to Discord, though. "Luna wants me to play evil queen so that Celestia and Chocolate can come here and 'save' her. I think I can stage an idiotic mock battle and… Well… Some entertainment. I also have a seven-headed hydra of a problem for her to fix… But that won't keep her here for long enough, and she's bound to leave anyway if she figures she needs to deal with Twilight and Cadance."

"Ah don't worry. Celestia's also gotten herself into a whole… What do you call it when ponies that work for the Princess steal her money?"

"Stupidity." She deadpanned. It's how she would call it if her changelings were stealing Hive resources from her. "Or death wish."

"No that is what we call changeling queens that try to be funny with The Lord of Chaos."

She rolled her eyes. "Embezzlement. Why in Equestria would they do that? A pony could live their entire life without working and get away with it."

He shrugged. "Beats me if I know. Because they like expensive things, I suppose. Not even the world almost ending can make certain ponies wise up. Anyway… She's got one such scheme to crack. The point is that she'll come eventually, and things are piling up on her plate. I may come up with something more, but you need to keep Luna busy too."

The queen laughed. "Easy. Luna is trying to shirk her duties at the Senate. How do you know that Celestia will come, though?"

"Ah she will. Dear little Luna wants it. Celestia's spoiled her since their parents died and Luna is an eternal teenager. The thing is…" He pulled at his beard. "Twilight will take time to get to Manehattan so you should stall and then stick to Celestia and Luna. And when they do catch up to Twilight, likely in Manehattan, you can help our young princesses. Hopefully after they've already talked to Naminé."

She raised a hoof, dismissively. "If it's that important that she meets this Naminé I can send my infiltrators to Manehattan to find her and facilitate their meeting. Our magic isn't as useful as it once was, but we should be able to manage it. With some luck, they can manage a meeting without Celestia looming over them."

"Good, good. Meanwhile I'll make sure that Celestia can't reach them or that they have a fighting chance." He crossed his arms. "Anyway… Once The Lion hears of this, he might want to help Twilight and Candance… But I would prefer not to get him involved."

"Can't you do us all a favor and kill the Lion already since Celestia is not willing?" She could hope.

"Of course not! That is wrong!" He gasped and she kept staring in silent frustration over the context of this whole multi-age mess. "Well, I'll see you later Chrissy. Bye."

With that he vanished into a flash. The queen was silent and her changelings on the room waited for something. A command. A question. Anything. A few seconds passed before Shimi broke the silence. "Your majesty… Do we want to get involved?"

"Discord likes Twilight and her friends." She said quietly. "I don't think that he would try to harm them… And by association he wouldn't do so to us by getting us to help. He likes Celestia… Whatever outcome he expects is good for her and then for us."

The small silvery changeling blinked twice at the queen. "You didn't answer my question."

Chrysalis looked for a good few seconds at her Praetorian with the stupid name she gave him without thinking. "We already are Shimi. It hadn't occurred to me but whatever happened to Celestia and Luna that damaged their souls or whatever the hay happened probably came from this mess. Everything is connected. In fact, our own creation might be implicated…"

One of her soldiers made an ominous sound and the other giggled like an idiot. Chrysalis figured she was getting too soft.

"Oh…" The small changeling hoofed uncomfortably at the table. "What do we do then?"

Before answering the queen magicked into existence a piece of parchment, a pen and an inkwell. "I'm going to write a letter to Celestia…. I want to draw her in and if she is too busy, she'll send Chocolate Velvet and a couple of knights along with her Royal Guards. That should help. I guess…"

"At least I get to play evil monster prisoner in the Bordello of Candy." She gave a creepy smile, but it became sarcastic. "Hopefully Chocolate Velvet isn't too attached to some weird vow of chastity or some stupid thing knights do… If I'm lucky Celestia will be distracted long enough that I can figure out how to tell her about the Praetorians."

Chrysalis kept a small frown, wondering how she could get Celestia's stallion to be interested in her after last night, but her charms never failed her. There was silence in the room other than the soft and continuous chime of the Queen's magical telekinesis and the scratching of the feather on the paper. But she stopped and rose her eyes to her eggmaiden who stared directly at her in that judging way that only she could direct at others in the Swarm.

"What?" She asked in her characteristic unfriendly tone.

"Don't you think King Thorax feels bad when you do this sort of thing?" She accused with words and stare over her crossed legs and angry expression. "It's bad for your relationship and therefore it's bad for the Swarm."

"He can get laid with anyone he wants too!" She defended herself more than argued back but failed to convince Shimi, her soldiers, or even herself. She would likely geld him if she ever caught him staring the wrong way at another thing. Alive or not.

"Anyways he knew what he was getting into when he agreed to marrying me." She said nonchalantly and raising her muzzle. One of her soldiers said something, chuckling and elbowing the other who barely tried to hold his laughter. "Hey! He's your king! Show some respect!"

She growled at the two and they recoiled and silenced immediately. Then she noticed the eggmaiden staring at her with a smug grin of superiority. "Fine! I'll talk to him or something. Next thing my eggmaidens are going to start giving me orders!"

The private room in Twilight's airship had a decently sized table meant for meetings between the airship's owner and its captain or other relevant ponies. Since Twilight and her friends were used to sleeping in the crowded place, they were fine with the meeting over the map table anyway. Though Applejack was getting aggravated at Rainbow's constant shuffling of her wings by her side. She understood that forcing Rainbow Dash to stand still, pay attention, and keep quiet for more than a few minutes could be considered a form of torture but she was trying to get her job done! Besides, Flurry Heart behaved better, for pony's sake!

Not that her pegasus friend understood any of that when she stared at her and then back at her notes scribbled on a piece of paper. "As I was saying, we checked the pantry and we do have enough food for everypony… And dragon… However, we do not have enough for a single day past the shores. And considering we need to cross the ocean to get to Griffonia, we're in trouble."

Twilight grunted with her hoof on her forehead. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to stop… But I guess that's just not possible. Can we sneak into a town? Get what we need and leave?"

"Not likely…" Her brother shook his head. "They are chasing us. That would be impossible."

He grunted in frustration and frowned. "As if they'd need that to track us… We're carrying the Elements of Harmony, two alicorns, a bunch of enchanted barding and weapons, and the airship has two giant mana batteries. No way we can sneak this thing near anywhere. An academy cadet unicorn could sense us without even trying. Not to mention we'll need a lot of stuff. We can't bring it to the middle of nowhere without drawing attention even if we could hide the ship."

Flurry Heart protested from behind her mother's head and he amended while Cadance looked up and giggled. "Right… There alicorns."

"Aye. Ship's made for speed princess. Not for sneakin'." The captain agreed. "We can keep running, but we'll eventually have to stop."

"Okay… Could be worse. Ideas?" She sighed.

"Uh… Actually, it is worse Twily…" Shining grimaced next to her and Cadance. "Princess Celestia likely has ordered the deployment of the local militias of every city, town and village, not to mention forts and detached garrisons all the way from Canterlot to Manehatan, and probably in Griffonia too. Luckily not many of them are equipped with modern airships because they've been moved to the griffon lands, but knowing precisely where we are, they can plot our course and intercept us. If we're lucky we can avoid most of them because the ship is so fast, but they'll certainly keep airships chasing us all the time and try to ambush us."

"So, is there some good news for us?" Glimmer growled next to Twilight who stared intently at the map.

"Well yes." Shining stared sarcastically. "We can hope that Princesses Celestia and Luna won't be throwing strategic level spells at us."

Cadance noticed, but kept to herself, that the general mood wasn't very nice in the room. This room sure could use some love.

"So…" Twilight spoke again. "We should avoid all cities and keep to our best possible speed… We'll need supplies… We may be forced to fight them."

Rarity hummed also staring down the map. "And what if we abandoned the airship? Leave it somewhere near Manehattan and they take another direction?"

"No way!" Rainbow flared her wings hitting both Applejack and Fluttershy but never took notice. "We can't just abandon them!"

"Rainbow is right Rarity." Twilight shook her head slightly. "We don't know what could happen to them."

"If that is what you need Princess…" White Leaf said, full of resolution. "We'll do it."

The alicorn simply shook her head again. "No. I can't be sure you won't be mistreated."

"Not to mention…" Shining Armor continued for Twilight. "Airships would be docked, and teleporters locked down as soon as they saw us approaching any major town. This alone shoots down most plans we can come up with."

"We're not getting anywhere." Twilight blurted out frustrated. "Come on everypony! We need ideas!"

"Why don't we fight Princess Celestia head on?" Applejack offered and attracted bulging eyes all over to her.

"Because that is likely to hurt a lot and turn us into small piles of ash when Princess Celestia uses the sun's fire on us, or something?" Spike rose an eyebrow at the suggestion.

"Actually, Princess Celestia's magic doesn't throw 'sun fire' around. Elemental magic is easier than that. It just so happens that her magic is Plasma, Life, and Harmony oriented. Therefore, her magical elements are a combination of Fire, Lightning, Magnetism, Light, Life and Harmony." Twilight said not very confident. "And she's been rated to output three point eighty-six times ten to the power of twelve Hornpower. It wouldn't hurt and wouldn't turn you into a pile of ash. You would feel nothing at all, and it would disintegrate you and then damage the fabric of reality for generations to come."

She paused for a second with a hoof on her chin. "Though not all that may be available for her to practically pour into a spell… There are limitations on how much magical energy can fit in a place at any one time, in a single formula."

Twilight shrugged. "In practical terms her Hornpower output is 'what the hay' and means that she finds it really easy to cast spells other ponies might struggle with and that she can make spells a lot more powerful by pouring more magical energy than needed into them. Which is one of the reasons the Senate has proposed legislation that prohibits Princesses Celestia and Luna from participating in warfare spellcasting."

She then put her hooves on her face in frustration. "And is this why every little tyrant wannabe, like The Lion hates the Princesses. In an emergency the Senate will grant the princesses special powers and they can do whatever they deem necessary, such as when Nightmare Moon, Tirek or Discord appeared. Not that Princess Celestia doesn't already do whatever she wants, because everypony loves and trusts her so much she can get away with freeing Discord out of the blue and annexing the Changeling Swarm like it's up for grabs! And I was forgetting that working together with Luna, they both could probably end existence as we know it! Ugh! This is what we're going against!"

She concluded with a frustrated and stifled scream against her hooves and ponies stared at each other. Starlight stared at the others while Twilight recomposed herself. "What she means is that the Princess doesn't have to overdo her spells. She can cast a low-energy spell just the same as a fast runner can simply walk."

She paused. "And also, that she could return us to our base components if she wanted."

Non-magical savvy ponies made silence for a while, considering what Starlight and Twilight explained. Until Pinkie finally spoke to her. "What are your kinds of magic Twilight?"

Starlight answered while Twilight stared at the map again. "Alicorns are attuned to all kinds of magic Pinkie. It's like Destiny's given them a 'cheat' so that they can do whatever they need to deal with threats to Equestria."

Then she continued. "But being 'oriented' means that they are that much more powerful when casting spells of their elemental orientation. Pegasi are Air and Water 'focused', which functionally also gives them the Ice element and means that they can access those elements when using their magic, but not others. Earth ponies are Life and Earth focused and unicorns are Arcane focused which lets us use things like telekinesis and mimic all kinds of elemental spells. But some individuals are also oriented into other elements like Rarity that has Earth oriented magic too. That said, Princess Luna has Harmony, Gravity, Mind, and Ice orientation in her magic. Twilight is Harmony oriented while Princess Cadance is Love oriented."

"Actually…" Twilight corrected her still staring at the map over her hooves. "Cadance's magic is Harmony and Life oriented which is why she can do healing magic really well and her love magic is a personal variation of her Life orientation. But there is some weird thing going on in the Crystal Empire that has started to give her Earth magic in the form of crystal manipulation and some Ice magic. These things are fluid and ponies can internalize a kind of magic like the Crystal Ponies that moved to the north and became 'crystal-y' over time. Alicorns seem to incorporate magic like that much faster."

"And how much Hornpower can you output Twilight?" The pink pony was still curious.

"Pinkie! You wouldn't ask these things of a unicorn!" Rarity frowned at her.

"But Twilight is an alicorn!" She complained but the others returned to the conversation that was more productive.

"Well what I meant…" Applejack insisted. "It that Princess Celestia is not going to use all her power to stop us. Not to mention that her position is based on trust. Even if she's done something wrong, she's not going crazy because that would erode the trust the peoples have on The Sisters."

"Which is the reason we are in this situation. Applejack." Twilight looked at her. "If Princess Celestia has done something bad in the past, it could erode her position now."

"And…" Applejack insisted again. "That is why she won't do anything too harsh to us! Even if you're right about her being evil. Or something."

"She doesn't have to." Shining put a hoof on the table. "She'd wipe the floor with us and that is if we managed to avoid the Royal Guard at all. She doesn't need high level spells for that."

"Not to mention that she could spin things her way to the Senate, anyways." Cadance added.

"Is it just me or are we screwed either way?" Rainbow deflated a little.

"We might as well give up!" Twilight sighed her frustration out. "There has to be a way to deal with whole mess!"

Her brother spoke again. "If we didn't need supplies, we could come up with a plan but… We can't just grab things somewhere and drag them to the ship somewhere safe. We'll need a working dock with a crew and access to supplies. Only places we can get that, Manehattan and Fillydelphia, are also the places we're likely to get the most resistance. Well there is also Baltimare but the point of going to Manehattan is that we need to see this Naminé and is the closest point in Central Equestria to the Griffon Lands."

"Ugh!" Twilight grunted and stared up in barely contained frustration. "We could take days trying to find a pony we don't know in Equestria's largest city! This will never work!"

"Shining…" Rarity called with that voice she uses when she has a magnificent idea. "How big a dock do we actually need?"

"Not that big?" The unicorn wondered.

"Aye. She needs only the hooves and carts to bring the supplies to a berth with a cargo ramp." The Captain added.

"Well…" Rarity smiled mysteriously. "Manehattan has more than one port dedicated to cargo."

Ponies stared at her and Shining narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Manehattan grew so fast and so large that its city sponsored port simply cannot keep up with all the demand. So, private individuals built another port in the south part of the city." She said with a radiant smile. "It is a small port that has significantly less protocols and likely breaks quite a few laws, but it is functional and should make our task much easier. Not to mention that I personally know the manager."

"Sounds like the sort of place they'd steal the airship rather than resupply'er, lass…" The Captain wasn't convinced.

"Better than the sort of place they'd lock down the airship and arrest the crew." Shinning grinned.

"Can they be trusted Rarity?" Twilight asked hopefully.

"Why they can be trusted enough. I bought several rolls of fabric through them for the store."

"Great… Twilight bought her airship with my taxes and Rarity just admitted to smuggling goods into Manehattan." Applejack covered her face with her hat.

"Applejack, please." Rarity used her passive-aggressive patient voice. "The movement of goods is regulated. The port's regulations are what is lax."

"None of that matters. They'll still see us coming." Starlight reminded the others. "This thing is like a giant magic beacon."

"Well if we can dock the ship without being seen they'll know we're in Manehattan but will still have to find us if we find a way to mask the ship's presence. And the first place they're likely to search is the main port." Shining grinned too. "With some luck we might be able to keep the ship hidden for long enough and then, when we're ready we can just blast out of there seaward. It's not foolproof but it could work."

"We come in at night. Fly slowly. Maybe let the ship lose mana to the atmosphere so that her batteries aren't so full. Engines at low emissions." The Captain nodded. "Might be it will work. We'll have to shake any pursuers before we approach the city, so they don't see where we aground her, but it's doable."

"Cadance and I can cast a magic dampening spell on the ship. She'll need to power down though." Twilight and Cadance smiled at each other.

"Uuh… Princesses…" Applejack seemed confused as did some of the present ponies. "I mean no offense to the ponies that actually understand magic but… Using magic to hide magic?"

"Oh. It's very possible!" Cadance giggled. "It's how counter spells work!"

"And this being artificial magic it's even easier. It just takes a lot of energy." Twilight grinned next to her. "Cadance here should be able to do it with some effort."

"Sounds like a plan!" Rainbow announced excitedly.

"They'll track me and Twilight, even without our regalias or barding and weapons." Cadance complained but then let go. "I don't think this is going to work that well but at least we'll be able to defend ourselves a little easier."

"At least we'll have a chance." Twilight agreed with her. "I think it's our best shot so that's what we'll do."

Lord Protector Grape Donut left his home early accompanied by his wife. He meant to be at his militia's headquarters before his ponies so that he could hear ahead of them whatever the verdict was. Princess Celestia's ponies and herself were done studying all the records he kept in his archive. Finances, operations, militiaponies and their interactions with the citizens of Ponyville, all communication between his HQ, Canterlot County's administration and Ponyville's Mayor's Office.

Lots of ponies were involved not only himself and his subordinates but many ponies that worked for Mayor Mare and ponies above her in the administration hierarchy all the way to the Royal House. This thing was intimidating.

The most impressive part of it was that Princess Celestia just so much 'snapped her fingers' -It was a griffon expression he thought was really cool- and the entire system seemed to grind to a halt and ponies began procuring the necessary records for the audition. Mind-blowing that in little less than a couple of days they were ready to present the results. At least as far as the culpability related to Ponyville's administration and his militia. Well, Ponyville is a small town and his militia hasn't been doing much anyway.

Almost as though she was reading his thoughts, Semolina Pudding's voice next to him drew his attention. "Grape, do you think we're in trouble?"

It hadn't occurred to him sooner, but he could be in trouble.

"I don't know." He admitted. "I haven't done anything, but I think that someone way above us may have set us up to take the fall if their scheme was found. Not to mention… I was completely incompetent as your boss."

"I'm scared, Grape." She kept her head low as they walked. "I wasn't really a role model either. The blame is on all of us."

Walking towards their headquarters he felt a sense of dread creeping up his spine and turning his stomach. He remembered well enough all the promises he had made to himself about turning in his resignations and literally ending his life… But that was before he saw that half of the town took his side against the Princess of Friendship and her sister-in-law, another Princess, and their heroes. It was exhilarating!

"I can't believe it…" He blurted out, frustrated and incredulous. "Our real chance at doing something right and we blew it. It was a mission from The Mare herself."

They stopped for a second while he rubbed his forehead and sighed. His mate touched him tenderly in his shoulder. "Let's go, Grape… We're in this together."

It also had occurred to him that not only Semolina wasn't nagging him the whole time, but she also talked to him like an actual pony. She clearly was as worried and sorry as he was. That was good. Probably?

She simply walked quietly to his side after that and seemed to be lost in her own thoughts too. He decided against bothering her.

They entered the market and they were met with an uncomfortable silence. He saw both dejection and sympathy in the faces around them and nopony bothered them on the way. It only added to the somber tone of his thoughts.

"Lord Protector." He turned to the side; someone had called him. It was the old Granny Smith the Apple Family's old matriarch holding out an apple to him.

"Ma'am." He greeted her respectfully while he grabbed the apple. Next to her was Applejack's older brother, Big Macintosh. What an absolute unit of a pony that guy was. He wished he could have him in his militia instead of their buff pony.

"I don't know what's gotten into my Applejack but I can assure you that she is a good pony." The old mare said with a sad expression. "But I know for sure that she believes what she is doing is right. I just want you to know that we're sorry for that whole mess."

"Eeyup." The younger Apple agreed.

"Thank you, ma'am. We appreciate it." Semolina said next to him with a surprisingly pleasant smile.

"Ponies ought to know better than to question The Princess! If it weren't for her this here town wouldn't exist, you know! Suppose the other princesses are confused. Young'uns do that every now and then, you know."

"Ponies just don't always agree ma'am." He smiled softly. "Nice talking to you."

The old mare waved goodbye while they walked away. "Good luck!"

Walking away he offered Semolina the apple without really thinking about it. She took it and had a light red tint in her cheeks. But he didn't see it, too worried about their future. After that they walked in silence for a few seconds while they took note of just how many ponies didn't stare at them and the silence their presence brought to the market. The town seemed divided because the princesses had a disagreement. Princess Celestia seemed worried about that, alright. Maybe the whole affair could grow in proportion and then all Equestria would be split between the two pairs of princesses. What a mess that would be, if that was the case.

Amid all that, it seemed like the town finally realized what those ponies in the militia were there for. They seemed to respect them; though they didn't know if for siding with the right princess or for finally doing their jobs. Maybe ponies realized that they did their best. They hoped that the Princess' ponies would take that into consideration.

He sighed looking up. "We failed at our job Sem. It was important… The Princess must be furious and with this investigation she's ordered… I think we might lose our job and our titles. I will be lucky if I don't end up in a dungeon."

She didn't say anything and simply kept quiet for the remainder of their walk to the Ponyville Militia Headquarters and arriving it seemed the same it always was, a long house with some windows and nothing special about it.

They went past the entrance door and past the door to offices area. It had been taken by several ponies they had never seen. Mostly canterlotian unicorns wearing a fancy jacket or a tie, one or another wearing reading glasses. His militiaponies milled about trying not to interfere with their work and at the same time tried to glimpse some clue as to their fate. So much for being there first like the responsible leader he ought to be.

Mayor Mare was there too, and she quickly approached the pair.

"Grape Donut…" Her ears hang low on her head and her eyes showed deep concern, speaking as hushed as she could. "They found something bad in the paperwork back in my office. It seems they are going to accuse Meadow Flower with something!"

"But… She is such a nice pony!" He gasped as quietly as he could. "What did she do? What are they accusing her of?"

The mare shook her head half in panic already. "I don't know! They wouldn't say! They're waiting for The Princess to arrive then their boss will talk to her in front of everypony. But it sounds bad and I'm afraid it will rebound on all of us!"

"But we didn't do anything wrong! I mean… We were kind of incompetent… But…" His ears fell after his initial shock. "That is my fault! Not yours! Or Meadow's!"

"Well it's not only your fault…" Semolina mentioned sadly and wondered if it hadn't simply become too easy for ponies all over to ignore the problem since the militia wasn't necessarily important most of the time. "I suppose we all here have our share of the blame."

Before they could continue the door to the Lord Protector's office opened and a small beige unicorn came out of it with a well-kept caramel mane in a ponytail and wearing a blue suit. She did speak with authority though. "Lord Grape Donut. Kindly come inside. The Madam Justiciar needs to see you."

He gasped so deeply it was more like he had inhaled. Deeply. Around him the ponies gasped.

A Justiciar! One of the ponies that Princess Celestia hoof-picked to preside investigations and administer punishment to corrupt government officers in her stead. Somehow, he had managed to get both the Princess and one of her justiciars angry about his militia!

Now he had to face one of the most dreaded nightmares of public officials in Equestria! He heard tales of very rich and powerful ponies losing everything! Dukes, Counts, Viceroys… And a king… Ponies, griffons and yaks… Their position, their money… Shunned by their rulers and the people they were supposed to serve, forced to live under bridges and forced to eat forage.

To be honest most of those stories must've been exaggerations since very few ponies could image Princess Celestia allowing such extremes. But he had failed her too! She would surely leave him at the Justiciar's mercy! What could such a terrible monster do to poor little him? He should have been a better commander. A better administrator. A better husband! A better pony! And now he was going to Tartarus or something like that!

He imagined one of those tall and elegant unicorns with a long horn with all the power to end his life along with his career. His head hung low, but he would face his executioner with pride: he may have failed but he did the best he could in the end!

He didn't linger and opened the door to pass it, closing it behind him. Then he found himself staring at a pleasantly looking white unicorn mare sitting at his desk. A delicate muzzle holding small reading spectacles in front of black-specked golden eyes. She wore the typical Justiciar red robes with golden chain and amulet of her office, with its hood down, letting show her frazzled pink mane.

Grape Donut simply stared at her instead of the big and scary monster he had imagined.

"Good morning Lord Grape Donut." She said calm and educated, organizing papers over his desk and he immediately remembered how screwed up he was. "I'd like-"

Instead of listening to her as a normal pony would he dropped to the floor crying like a foal. "I know! I know! Shameful! I don't deserve mercy! I messed up! I really messed up! It is all my fault too! But the others aren't to blame! Please-"

"I was going to ask if it is alright if I ate one of these donuts…" She stared at him without letting his display affect her.

"Oh… Absolutely." He blurted out looking up from the ball of pathetic crying pony he had become. "Make yourself comfortable."

She grabbed one of the sweets in her telekinetic magic and inspected the sugar-coated confection. "The Princess had already decided how she was going to deal with your unit and none of you are to be prosecuted for misappropriation of Her Royal Highness' assets. You're in trouble alright but it's none of my business after you were cleared out of stealing Her Highness' money."

He blinked a few times dumbfounded. "Why did you want to talk to me then?"

"Because something prompted Princess Celestia to order you ponies to arrest Princess Twilight and Princess Cadance along with their retinue. Prince Shining Armor… Captain of her Guard? The Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Something big and weird is happening. And it seems like I should make it my business…" She bit the chocolate filled donut and munched at it. "Understand?"

He took a few seconds to process that. "Uh… All I can say is that the Princess believed that Princesses Twilight and Cadance were confused about something. I didn't really question her orders.

His hoof uncomfortably found the back of his neck and he chuckled even more uncomfortably. "To be honest I was afraid of even trying to get involved."

"I see… Did you learn of anything during the operation?"

"Princess Twilight did say that she had the right to investigate something. And that she was in an important mission. And also, the Prince Consort did say that Princesses did something wrong…"

The white unicorn hummed pensively and bit at the donut again. The other pony simply stared in confused silence. "Hmmm. We're done here. I need to talk to Celestia now."

With that she finished her donut and jumped over the desk. He stepped out of her way and then followed her outside to the offices area. The Princess had just arrived with her knight in white silks and Royal Guard golden barding. The whole room fell silent as a graveyard.

"Golden Rule?" The princess blinked twice. "What are you doing here? I didn't call for a justiciar."

"Well a good one has a nose for trouble princess." The unicorn grinned way too smugly and pointed at her chocolate dirty muzzle.

"Your muzzle is dirty…" The princess said mildly amused and the other simply licked it in, still staring at the Princess in such an intense way that left Celestia confused. "Hum… Well, your report?"

"Absolutely!" The unicorn became serious and magicked a paper folder to the princess who proceeded to read it while the unicorn talked. "We did find evidence of embezzlement. Money that should be getting here wasn't and the reason that nopony noticed is that records were adulterated in the Mayor's Office. Specifically, to hide it. A pony working for the Mayor's Office by the name of Meadow Flower oversaw the transfer of resources to the local militia. In the militia's side though, there was no record whatsoever. I just don't understand why is it that the responsible for the resources within the militia didn't suspect something was wrong."

The princess sighed and closed the folder. "I don't think he was paying a lot of attention. It seems too obvious too. Take me to Miss Meadow Flower. please."

The unicorn nodded and both walked to the group of ponies that was Grape Donut, his wife, the mayor, and the mare that called Grape to the office. Chocolate Velvet walked next to the two mares and remained quiet, simply watching while the ponies stared dejectedly at each other and then at the princess and her Justiciar.

"I would like to speak to Miss Meadow Flower. Extra-officially, please." Celestia stared down at the ponies and one of them, a soft beige and tan maned earth pony raised her trembling hoof. She seemed terrified and Chocolate Velvet wondered if it even was a good idea for the Princess to talk to her. He doubted she would be able to draw anything from her right then.

"It's me… Princess." The poor thing trembled and seemed as fragile as the smiley daisy in her cutie mark.

"Do you understand the accusations that are being made against you?" The small pony nodded 'yes'. "Is there anything you would like to tell me?"

The pony simply looked down and shook her head softly. Chocolate expected the princess to return the folder to her Justiciar and let her do her job. Instead Celestia looked at the folder again and then back at the pony. "Miss Meadow Flower, Miss Golden Rule has reviewed the record of your bank accounts and you don't seem to be accumulating wealth. In my many generations of lifetime I have never seen a pony steal from the government and then throw that money away. You adulterated the records on behalf of somepony else, not for yourself."

Meadow looked away and spoke softly. "They'll hurt my family Princess."

"No. They won't." Celestia lowered herself to stare at the little mare. "Whoever they are I can protect you and your family. But I cannot do it if I don't understand the situation. I must maintain a relationship of trust with all institutions that form our government, and if I start protecting ponies that don't deserve protection, that trust will erode away. Please understand that you will be prosecuted for participating. The judge may or may not consider that you did not accumulate wealth as a sign that you were likely coerced into this. If you cooperate and disclose to the investigators all the details of the situation, I will grant you lenience and protection to your family."

The little mare stared at the princess for a second or two before she spoke again. "They approached me on the way to work half a year ago… They said they'd hurt my wife and husband and that we'd never see our foals again if I didn't do what they wanted or told anypony about this…"

"It will be alright." Celestia told her softly and smiled. Then she stood and looked at the other ponies. "Lord Protector?"

The princess calling him almost startled him and he immediately stood at attention. "Your highness?"

"Are you willing to keep your position?" She asked and he sensed the honesty and practicality in her voice.

Was he though? He had to stop and ask himself the question inside his head. The princess was certainly right to ask him such a question and he likely wouldn't have thought of it if she didn't.

"Hum… Boss?" Ponies stared at him and one of his subordinates Marble Hoof, 'the smart one', called him almost with doubt and worry in his voice. "You haven't answered yet."

He looked at the pony and at the others. Several sets of eyes watching him. Some worried, others already showing disappointment. His griffon friend, a way off next to a wall didn't stare, instead he looked at the floor, but the pony knew he too waited for his answer.

His eyes found the Princess next to her amazing knight. He hadn't thought of it, but Sir Chocolate Velvet represented so much of everything he had hoped for in life. The great and powerful protector of ponies that slayed the monsters which preyed at ponies… Ponies like him that helped the Princess make Equestria the awesome place that it was. He had forgotten theses dreams, hadn't he?

But could he be compared to the knight in front of him?

Well, he could. Even the great knight that followed The Princess around failed. Even if he was bigger and stronger, simply more powerful than Grape Donut would ever be. He just didn't know if he had the moral ground to ask the princess to let him keep his job. In fact, he should be ashamed of himself for his sloppy command of the Ponyville Militia and he didn't think that he could bring himself to ask the princess for a second chance.

He was ready to give her his answer, but she spoke first. "I need to tell you something important first. It is good that all of you listen to it."

He mumbled and hesitated first caught off guard by her request, but he eventually agreed. Ponies paid attention. His mind flooded with all the nasty things he had once thought of telling her.

Face to face with The Princess words failed him. He couldn't even bring himself to tell her how much he hated Twilight Sparkle. He also realized that ironically, she was the one that actually knew who he was and took him seriously.

Finally, the princess said something. "Some creatures like the diamond dogs only live for eighty years. Some insects live for weeks and others live for only one day. Small animals can lead lives as short as ten years. Some unicorns lived up to five centuries. The average earth pony lives some two hundred years. Some of you can live up to two centuries and a half. You look so young though… How old are you?"

"I am…" He hesitated. "I'm twenty-five your majesty."

Hearing that she laughed, and he stared at her. She was so beautiful, and her laughter sounded so… He lacked a proper analogy. He hadn't been seeing many beautiful things in his life lately.

Meanwhile Chocolate Velvet wondered where the hell she was leading this conversation.

"Do you know how old I am?" She grinned at the earth pony.

"Not really your majesty…" One didn't really go around asking how old was Princess Celestia.

"I am six thousand one hundred ninety-five years old." She lowered herself and said with a larger grin. Something seemed off about that number, but none of the present couldn't process just how many years that was.

The Lord Protector simply stood there, looking at her and listening. The conversation was much different from what he expected. "You are like little candles in the wind. You are born and you shine so brightly. You dream, you aspire. You struggle and you change. You change the world around you. The light you, all of you cast brings beauty to the world. But your time is limited! As you shine you are consumed… Every second a little bit of you is spent and when your light is exhausted it is over. You can't afford to spend your time alive worrying about things that should be. You need to live your life to its fullest extent, to shine as bright as you can, and not worry about how you did everything wrong, or how you should be doing better. Because the sunrise is more beautiful if you watch over the river without the pretension to fish more. Do you understand?"

"I think I do, princess." He said, looking down, until her magic pulled his chin up to look at her smiling candidly at him.

"Let me worry about things. I have time. You need to go live your life."

He smiled back at her. "Thank you, princess."

"Now…" She towered above him again. "Do you wish to keep your position as the Lord Protector of Ponyville?"

"Yes princess!" He had a huge grin on his face.

"Excellent!" She smiled some more.

Ponies celebrated with restrained joy given the present situation, but they recognized the happiness in his and the princess' smiles when Grape Donut turned to his ponies. "Well, if you guys will give me a second chance, I'd like to get started on working to make ourselves the best town militia in Equestria!"

He was glad at the answer he got from his militiaponies. They felt like a group of friends. Or maybe it was just him that had a good mood. Something in the middle, perhaps? The important thing was that they seemed to have a future as the town militia. Mayor Mare even smiled at him and friendly put her leg over his back.

Looking at the scene from outside, one thing stood out to Chocolate Velvet. They didn't give up on each other.

"Celestia. This just arrived." Crucible Wings approached and offered her a scroll interrupting the celebration. Taking it in her telekinetic magic, the princess opened the scroll while he talked. "Chrysalis' made Luna her prisoner in the Crystal Empire and her guards can't save her… Or something. It appears they don't have the numbers to siege the Bordello of Candy where Chrysalis's holed up with her."

With the open scroll in her magic, she stared at the pony like she was having trouble comprehending what he had just said. She blinked twice. "How did that happen?"

He simply shrugged. Celestia then turned to the letter.

'_Dear Princess Celestia._

_I have taken your little sister Princess Luna hostage and for her safe return to Canterlot I demand her weight in small Princess Celestia toy figurines._

_Under no circumstance must you or any Knight of the Royal House attempt to rescue her from the second tower to the left of the main structure of the Bordello of Candy or I, The Very Evil Queen Chrysalis shall be waiting for you with your sister for you to see me torture her._

_Queen Chrysalis_

_P.S.: I feel sorry for trying to steal Chocolate Velvet. Definitively do not bring him.'_

"I cannot believe these two!" She said with an irritated frown staring up from the letter. "I sent Luna to the Crystal Empire to capture Cadance and she is fooling around with Chrysalis!"

While Chocolate Velvet's mind was amid immature mature images about Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis doing things that shouldn't be mentioned in public, Crucible Wings was more useful. "Chrysalis has ordered her escort to take over the Bordello and Luna's guards did mention some estrange looking changelings, princess. This may be worth investigating."

The princess sighed with her ears turned back. Chocolate did tell her of his conversation with Chrysalis in dinner last night, and she already knew Chrysalis might be up to something naughty… Terrible choice of word in the present context, but regardless it seemed like something that warranted attention. She couldn't figure out why was Chrysalis taunting her. Something didn't add up and since Chocolate Velvet mentioned that Discord seemed to side with Twilight and Cadance, she had a feeling that more problems would crop up to distract her from her hunt of the wayward princesses.

"Princess, it sounds like your highness is needed. Please let us try to capture the princesses again!" Grape Donut approached her with a hoof over his chest.

Her face immediately softened. "I would allow you to join the Royal Guard in the pursuit Lord Donut, but I am afraid they are above your capabilities for now."

"We would've won if Discord didn't show up, Celestia." Chocolate was back to his professional self. "I was frustrated, but Twilight and her friends were getting tired."

She nodded at him and looked at the ponyvillians. "I could provide you with an airship and a teleportation to Baltimare for you to have a chance, but not within practical time. Our more capable airships are in Griffonia or securing the shores."

"I have an airship, princess." The griffon mercenary raised a claw. "It's not the fastest, but it is a good warship of griffon make and is equipped to board other airships."

He then grinned and raised his hands. "I'm supposed to help train them, anyway."

Her ears fell and she shuddered with thoughts of these poor underprepared ponies plummeting to their deaths from thousands of hooves. She shook her head. "I cannot allow it. Airship combat operations aren't a thing for civilian militias."

Then she was surprised at the obese pony frowning at her. Ponies just didn't do that to her! "Didn't you just tell me to go live my life and let you worry about stuff?"

Surprised, she sat on the floor and raised a leg. "I did... But. That was not… I mean…"

"You played yourself, Celestia…" She wished she could kick that smug smile out of Crucible Wings' face. Not to mention Chocolate's matter-of-fact nodding, complete with lidded eyes.

"Fine!" Her ears turned back, and she stomped the floor angrily which amused Chocolate Velvet to no end. "But please be careful! I don't want any of you to lose your lives because of this!"

"I promise, your highness. We will be careful." The pony told her in all seriousness.

"And I'll take care of them, Princess" The griffon pointed a thumb at his chest.

"Very well." She nodded once. "I shall pay for the teleportation fee of your airship to Baltimare. Keep me informed and when it is time Sir. Velvet will join you with a full battalion of my Royal Guards. Crucible, kindly ensure that Lord Grape Donut and his ponies are thoroughly prepared for the mission with the best equipment available to the Royal Guard. And Mister Snake, make sure these ponies are as prepared as possible for the task ahead."

The Princess then turned to the Justiciar Golden Rule. "Collect Miss Meadow Flower's testimony and make sure that the process runs smoothly on Canterlot. You know the workings of the job. And, Madam Mayor, I assure you that I will return your ponies as soon as possible."

"Yes ma'am." Said the Royal Guard and the griffon mercenary.

"Thank you, Princess." The mayor nodded with a smile.

Candy Crush, the 'cute pegasus' of the group didn't say anything, but slowly and incredulously shook her head. Those ponies were out of their minds! No way in Tartarus she would get herself mauled or possibly killed so that the princess can get laid in a luxury hotel she couldn't afford with her pay.

Feeling left out of the excitement, she huffed silently and turned to the door without looking back. Nopony seemed to have cared she left, so she didn't care either. Outside was the same Ponyville of always that never paid her much attention. She started making her way home and after a few yards she stopped to a hushed voice.

"Hey, pony… Though day at work?" A male voice with a bit of an accent that pulled on the 's', a bit squawky.

She turned to see a smug looking griffon sitting on the dirt path and leaning against the wall. He wore a bandolier with a pouch. She was sure it was adorned with some large animal teeth, and she didn't like it one bit, but other than that, it was a young and comely griffon with purple coat and golden eyes, but a mustard colored head.

"Yeah, what is it to you?" She made every effort to sound as unfriendly as possible. For a second she thought he was going to hit on her.

"Oh, nothing. I just wish to purchase some information…" He grinned as he produced a hefty pouch of Bits. "I hear that the Crown doesn't really care much for you… I thought I'd show some appreciation for your time. You see, we appreciate the dutiful where I come from."

"And where would that be?" She closed one eye and stared at him.

"Does it matter?" He threw the pouch to her. "We use Bits for currency."

It was a pretty heavy pouch. Probably enough to pay for some three months of her salary… Get her muzzle fixed for good. Sounded almost fair, but she still felt like she was betraying her… Friends?

"You've been holding it for some time, pony." The griffon winked at her. "I think we know what you want."

"All I know is that Princess Celestia wanted Princesses Twilight and Cadance detained. And that she's planning on an ambush near Baltimare." She said quickly. Before she might regret it.

Just as soon as she closed her mouth the door to the headquarters opened and it was the 'other pegasus'. Flight Worthy appeared out of it and called her from the door and as soon as she heard his voice she squealed and hid the pouch under her wing. "Candy! We're wrapping up to go to Mister Snake's airship! You need to pack your things!"

She meant to return the pouch to the griffon and apologize. Alert the Princess of what she'd done. But he was gone.

"Come on, Candy!" He called again impatiently.

Well… She couldn't give up the money now.


	14. Winter Has Come a Long Time Ago

Celestia had barely began the day and it was very cold in the northern region of Griffonia known as Snow Mountains Hold, and if there ever was a more aptly named region of Equestria, Discord didn't know. The cold didn't bother him though because there seemed to be some quality chaos to be had in that place. The only thing bothering him is that it felt funky.

Chaos was typically fun, but in that place something about it felt grim and 'wrong' in a way that reminded him of a time long ago. So, since he was the Spirit of Chaos it was his job to figure it out. As much as it was his job to do anything, anyways. The point was that he was curious about it and if he could fix it all the better.

He stood at the edge of the ridge, holding his eyes out like a pair of binoculars looking down a restrained and long valley with a snaking path in between the tree lines at the base of the mountains.

Finally, after more time than he cared for he saw something that could give him a hint as to what the problem was. It was a long file, some three or four columns wide of griffons marching in the shallow snow. They wore light blue coats and helmets on their heads. Each carried a backpack and one of those shooty sticks that seemed to be everywhere those days.

Whatever was the problem with Chaos in that area it seemed to swirl around those griffons, so he decided to approach them. And by that, it meant that he teleported right in front of the first griffon in the formation.

"Hello!" He flashed and banged out of nowhere and the griffon screamed with a scared jump backwards into the next griffon behind him and the next one bumped into both of them in a chaotic cacophony of pained and surprised screams and yelps. Until one of them in the mass of surprised griffons finally gathered his wits.

"Whoa! Guys! It's Discord!" He adjusted his helmet and shouted excitedly.

What followed was another mess of excited griffons and he took a moment to regard them in more detail. They all wore that light blue cloak over themselves and a helmet that reminded Discord of a shallow plate strapped on to their heads. They did indeed carry backpacks filled with he didn't know what and those noisy sticks in their backs. And under their cloaks they wore light metal armor, shiny and polished, barely enough to keep a couple of protective spells on them, as far as Discord could see. But he wasn't very knowledgeable in these things.

Other than that, they were a diverse group of griffons. Different sizes, different builds and colors, almost like ponies and different levels of excitement. Then he understood. That was an army, like those that would march around in the times of the Pony Republic, of independent nations and before Celestia and kill each other over some stupid thing like plots of land and shiny things.

And the reason Chaos seemed so weird was that these griffons wouldn't be coming back from whatever their destination was. The strands of time had connected, and he didn't know exactly how yet, but a soon-coming death hung over them like a disgusting foul-smelling miasma. It was a breach of their destinies, not the path their lives were supposed to take, and he didn't like it at all.

Things weren't supposed to be like that anymore. Celestia had changed that.

Well, the nice thing about time was that it was dependent on causality. If he could break those strands of time, nothing like that would happen. "So, where are you guys going?"

"We're marching towards Griffindell, Lord Discord." One of the more ecstatic griffons told him.

"What is a Grifindell?"

"It is the capital of Snow Mountains Hold…" One of the less ecstatic griffons told him. "We're supposed to apprehend The Lion and end his rebellion. Along the way we're supposed to take a nearby city so that they can't reinforce Griffindell. Or something."

"Yeah!" The first spoke again. "His hiding like a kitten in Griffindell and we're gonna flush him out and take him to justice."

He hummed to himself and stroked his beard. "Is that so?"

Odd. He was pretty sure that Celestia was fine with The Lion becoming their king. Or something. But before he could inquire the griffons any further another of their kind rose above flapping his wings further down the column. "What is keeping the column?!"

He, a gray and white griffon approached with a retinue of more griffons in blue cloaks, but instead of a chest plate, this one had a fancy uniform under his cloak, with blues, gold, a bunch of medals Discord had no idea what they meant. All he knew is that as soon as the griffon saw him his angry demeanor changed to a… Discord called it high-nosed one.

"Lord Discord. Everything here is under control."

"Oh, I'll bet. So, who are you?"

"I am Major-General Grommer, and I am in command of this division!"

"From back there?" He pointed.

"I understand what you mean." The griffon kept his poise. "The nature of warfare is changing, Lord Discord. It is irresponsible for a leader to put themselves in a position of vulnerability. Leading the column is better in the paws of our scouts."

"If you say so…"

He was going to compare him to certain leaders he knew, but before he could say anymore griffons started coming out of the tree lines and it took him little time to understand what was going to happen had he not gotten in the way. The griffons in Grommer's army, division, whatever seemed to have understood it as well since they grouped together while they were circled by the northerners.

It amazed Discord how different these griffons were. They wore cloaks too, but theirs were white and harder to see them in the snow. Kind of obvious but he figured it had little to do with camouflage, rather with the fact that those griffons hunted animals of the region and then wore their coats when the 'city griffons' wore cotton cloaks. While he didn't judge the merit of each in keeping their wearer warm, it spoke to him something about the makers of those cloaks. That wasn't new though, as Discord was aware that some griffons hunted wild animals, despite the ponies' protests. What did surprise him was the size and physical power of these griffons. Maybe living in the wild made them stronger?

No one really said anything. Not even Grommer as his griffons were surrounded and seemed to have already surrendered without even an order. They were outclassed and even them could see it clearly.

These griffons were larger yes, but they also protected themselves with a different philosophy. Full armor in their chests and helms that better protected their heads. They had their shooty sticks too, but they also had other weapons such as swords, war hammers and axes. There were some young ones too, but even they seemed gruffer, wilder. Or dirtier… Discord wasn't sure. All he knew is that things were far from solved yet.

A pair of griffons soon approached him, one male and one female. He actually had a collar of big pointy teeth around his neck and didn't wear a helm or helmet, carrying a huge war hammer. A big black and light gray griffon with yellow eyes, hardened and serious accompanied by an equally tough female that was gray and white with blue eyes, but she instead wore a more elegant white cloak, adorned with light blue feathers in the rim and she favored the sword. They each had a discreet golden diadem in their heads.

One funny thing though: both of them summarily ignored Grommer's salutation and instead addressed Discord.

"Lord of Chaos, I am Graham, and this is my mate Geena. These griffons have trespassed in our land with the intention of taking our homes and our cubs from us. We are well within our natural rights to defend ourselves and our possessions."

"Outrageous!" Grommer cried. "These griffons are in conflict with our great nation's laws and in contempt with our leadership. They are rebellious and must be brought to submission for the sake of our nation's sovereignty. They don't even plan on splitting the nation in half. They want it all for themselves. Even if the majority of the population thinks they are uneducated savages!"

Of all the things he had planned on doing that day, playing arbiter to griffon disputes really wasn't one of the things he had expected to do. But that is chaos for you. What drew his attention was how much more under control and disciplined the big griffon, Graham and his mate seemed to be as they simply stared with mild amusement as the general… Colonel… Whatever ranted on.

"In an age of civility and friendship these brutes want to go back to a time of irrational rulers that didn't answer to anyone! That is why we are going to fight, and this Lion is going to answer for sedition even if we fall here!"

Though it amused Discord that the griffons had decided to attack The Lion behind the Princess' back while spouting a speech about friendship and unity. He knew Celestia, Twilight. Luna and Cadance. They wouldn't be backing this hypocrisy.

Still, he wasn't entirely without reason, even if his rant did seem shallow and tacked on when his army had been surrounded and even his own soldiers cringed at his words and they would all already have been murdered by now had Discord not been there.

"So, can I convince you not to kill each other? That would be a nice start, I suppose." Discord finally said. "I don't think that these griffons should be here and the griffon's… Uh…"

"Chancellor." One of the griffons in the front reminded him.

"Yeah… The griffon Chancellor is doing things he shouldn't. Or something like that." He shrugged. "I doubt that Celestia agrees with this attack and neither do your representatives in Canterlot. In fact, I doubt that most griffons want this war to happen."

The big Graham took stock of the situation and looked at his warriors. Discord didn't see any outward signs of a preference. It seemed like they trusted his leadership, unlike the other griffons under Grommer that did seem a little nervous. Finally, Graham spoke.

"These griffons have come to us with ill intent and were incompetent enough to be surrounded. They also disagree with our way of living and would return to fight us eventually. Their lives were forfeited when they chose their side."

"Can't you take them prisoner, or something?" Discord argued. He really didn't want to see this turn into the slaughter it was shaping up to be and this seemed like a good opportunity to put 'Celestia's method' to the test. "I mean, I know you guys don't like all that friendship talk, but these are griffons too and they just happen to be a little different. I'm sure that if we talk, we can reach an agreement. No harm really done yet."

Grommer was fortunately smart enough to keep his beak shut, but Graham didn't seem very convinced and he shook his head. "We can't keep that many prisoners."

His mate took a step forward and looked at him. "They can make camp outside the city and then we'd have enough warriors to keep watch. I believe they understand their situation and are smart enough not to try anything. They have their own food and we can share with them for a while until this situation gets sorted out."

"I'm not feeding these sugar guzzlers." He frowned. "My hunters aren't going to risk their lives against magical monsters seeking food for them."

She stared at him a little harder. "Well, they are going to eat what we give them, regardless of the liking it or not and our hunters will hunt either way. These kittens might as well learn something about being real griffons."

He shifted his posture, staring at her like she was being unreasonable. "They are adults enough to pick up a gun and dream of killing and robbing us. You know what happens in these situations."

She didn't budge and gave him an even harder stare. "Celestia teaches honor as much as Lady Gwendolen does. Look at them. They don't know what they are getting into. Most of them aren't old enough to have met a queen. Grant isn't much older than they are."

"Dude!" One of the blue-coated griffons cried. "Did she just call us virgins? Not cool, bro! Not cool!"

"Be quiet, cub." She frowned at him.

"Yes ma'am…" His eyes shifted down.

"Geena, Grant is already mated, and his mate is expecting a cub. He is also a very skilled caribou hunter. I wouldn't be surprised if a caribou ate one of these."

"It is not their fault they were raised soft milkdrinkers."

"You know… I'm not really comfortable with the way you are talking about us." 'The cub' was summarily ignored.

Discord cleared his throat. "What you do here will have an effect moving forward..."

"Fine!" He finally acquiesced and addressed Grommer. "Tell your griffons to surrender their weapons and to not cause trouble. I swear that if I have to, I will kill any one of them just to spite her."

Grommer seemed not to like it but was wise enough to not say anything as his enemies collected weapons and organized their prisoners and he was soon followed by Graham to address his soldiers and they spoke of things that didn't interest Discord.

"Huh… What do you know? Asking politely did work." He was still amused, though. Then he noticed the griffoness, Geena was still there, looking up at him and waiting for him to notice her. He grinned and offered a closed fist for her to bump. "Thank you for your help!"

She offered him an open hand and waited patiently until he understood and opened his own to shake hers. Finally, she spoke to him. "It is an honorable thing to see one's cub die in a worthy battle, but it is better to see them live to know their own grandchildren."

"Maybe we should change generals for mothers." He pulled at his beard, grinning amusedly. "I thought you were all murderous and grim isolationists."

"Well, I am very proud of the game meat we sell to the hippogriffs, even if I don't like them very much and it seems like a guilty pleasure of theirs. And I appreciate the pearls I can find in our market thanks to them. I also like very much fish seasoned with the herbs the ponies grow…"

"Sounds like you shouldn't be fighting at all. Is it really all because you don't like your leaders?" He scratched his head. "I mean, can't you just choose others? I know Celestia is fine with this."

"You should go to Griffindell. There are some griffons in there you should meet." She smiled motherly at him. "I am a local leader with my mate, and we are vassals to The Lion. He can explain better to you what is the problem. And Lady Gwendolen is our repository of our culture and traditions. She can explain all you wish to understand about us."

"Maybe I should." He concluded thoughtfully.

Another morning in the _Magic of Friendship_ didn't have warring griffons and it was exactly like the previous. Ponies were beginning to tire of the monotony and one of them was Flurry Heart. She was in a foul mood. She bit Cadance. She cried at Shining Armor. And Cadance wasn't sure, but she could swear that the baby had called Miss Calcite something nasty when she tried to help.

And then she refused to eat. Because of course she would.

She was sitting on the meeting table with Shining Armor on one side and Cadance on the other, holding a small baby spoon in her magic and Shining held the baby with all the care in the world. Twilight, Starlight Glimmer, Rarity and Rainbow Dash stood on the other side of the room, staring like they were watching a horror theater piece.

Shining Armor looked like he hadn't eaten or slept in days and Cadance's mane was a royal mess. Her ears were folded to the back of her head and she still had a small scowl. And that was from some half-hour of dealing with the angry baby. To be honest Twilight wondered if it wouldn't be a good idea to separate her from the baby for a while. She had read on a book recently that it would help once in a while.

"Come on dear… It's delicious." Cadance half-growled.

No, it wasn't, she knew it wasn't. It was the Discord-cursed mashed apples that seemed to be everywhere in this cramped and busy airship. In her place Cadance might be making a bigger tantrum but the baby pony simply closed her eyes and shook her head angrily.

"That is why I'm never having foals…" The pegasus whispered to the two mares next to her.

"Yikes…" Starlight agreed silently.

"Oh, it's not that bad." Rarity giggled mutedly. "She's just in a bad mood, nothing more natural. Babies go through these spells. Especially out of their typical environment."

Twilight though, took a few steps forward. "Maybe I can help?"

Cadance gave up with a sigh. "Not going to hurt, anyway."

She stood and gave Twilight her place by the table and also the little spoon.

"Hi Flurry Heart! I'm auntie Twilight!" She chimed at the baby who scowled a little, distrustful of whatever this new strategy might be. Cadance watched from a few hooves away and could imagine Twilight reading a book on babies and acting like she had figured out the secrets of the universe when it said that you should reinforce the names of the baby's relatives or something like that.

"Look what I have!" She magically held the spoon to the baby and gave her an exaggerated smile. "Yummm! Apples!"

'Noob.' Mother and daughter thought at the same time.

But then the baby complained with an angry cry and turned her head to the side.

"Heeeey. These are special apples!" Twilight insisted. "They came from the best apple farm in all of the world! Don't you know Applejack? They came from her farm!"

Flurry stared with utter disdain at the yellowy white mass. Cadance had to agree… It looked rather disgusting. Or maybe it was her mood at the moment.

"Ooooh. You don't believe me? Look." Twilight still insisted. She showed the baby how tasty the apples were eating the whole spoonful of it. "Hmmm. Yum… Yum… Are you sure you don't want some?"

Flurry Heart simply pushed the bowl of mashed apples to her.

Cadance smirked and struggled against her giggling. "At least she's being polite because it is you. If it was me, she would have thrown that thing in me."

But Rainbow fell on her side laughing enough for both of them and Starlight hid her giggling as best as she could too.

"That doesn't work, Twily." Shinning chuckled.

"Mom did that with us!" She complained as though the baby was cheating.

"Does that mean she's smarter than you?" Rainbow started laughing again, laying on her side and flaying her legs.

But the younger princess didn't let that dampen her morale. She could still win this and for that she used her best weapon… Magic. A big (from the baby's perspective) Luna plushie manifested next to her and Flurry immediately reached out with her little hooves. "Oh! It's Princess Luna! I think that Whammy would like a new friend, right?"

"That's cheating!" Cadance pointed a hoof at her.

"All is fair in love, war and foalsitting!" She spat back triumphantly.

"You're not supposed to buy her with toys, Princess…" Miss Calcite glowered from the other side of the table. "It reinforces bad behavior!"

Flurry didn't care. She grabbed the toy from Twilight's magical grasp with her own. "Well… It's hers now."

"Do you think that Princess Luna visits her dreams too?" Starlight approached, staring at the baby happily frolicking around with the new toy.

"She does!" Twilight nodded. "She has told me so before."

Cadance frowned, looking at the baby and then at Twilight. "Really? Did she say what she dreams about?"

Twilight shook her head. "Princess Luna doesn't tell others about your dreams."

"Hum… Yeah… She doesn't." Cadance stared at the baby rubbing a leg under her chin.

"Uh… She's a baby." Rainbow stared. "She doesn't even know what privacy is. And I guess it would be helpful for the parents? I mean, maybe it could explain why it's hard to make babies eat sometimes."

"Ah, Rainbow." Twilight waved a hoof at her. "It's usually because the baby is eating things out of proper mealtime. Nothing mysterious or related to dreams."

"Yeah… There's nothing mysterious or weird going on in the world, right?"

"Point taken…" Twilight rubbed her chin staring at the baby.

An awkward silence followed while the adults stared at the miniature alicorn biting at Princess Luna's ear and staring innocently back at them.

"Yeah, she's just a baby." Starlight frowned. "She probably dreams with Cadance and Shinning Armor and her maid giving her sweets of something."

"At least she's happy now." Cadance watched the baby giggling to the plushie and hugging it.

"She didn't eat though." Rainbow reminded her.

The princess sighed again. "We'll just wait till she's hungry."

Just as the discussion was settled, Applejack came in through the doors with a cheerful prance. "Howdy ponies. Who didn't eat? What is going on?"

"We're having trouble feeding Flurry Heart." Twilight said. "I think she's had enough mashed apples."

"Nonsense. Apples are always good to you!" She came closer. "Let me see if I can't get her to cooperate."

Twilight and Cadance stared at one another, but Cadance shrugged and Twilight decided that it wouldn't hurt.

"Hi, little one!" She said grabbing a spoonful of the thing. If she hadn't grabbed that disgusting thing Flurry might have conceded a smile and a giggle to the orange pony because she liked Applejack and the way she spoke. "Don't you like my family's apples?"

Flurry frowned holding tighter her new toy… She understood what was going on, but she was not going to give in her previous victories.

"Well, I understand. You like your new toy and it's more fun than eating some old apples. But you know what else?"

There was a small pause and then the pony scowled at the baby. "There ain't nothing else to eat, so it's this or you're starving till Manehattan."

The baby was smart, understood the message crystal clear and let Applejack give her the spoonful of mashed apples.

"There you go!" Applejack smiled happily at the baby and fed her another spoonful of the thing. "What a nice filly!"

Then another. And some more until finally the whole bowl of mashed apples Cadance had prepared was done. The orange pony let the spoon on the bowl and smiled radiantly.

"Good work, Flurry Heart! See you later!" She rubbed the baby's head softly before retreating. "There you go Princess! Just call if you all need any help!"

Then she left and the ponies were left staring at the door. It was Rarity who spoke first. "I… Worry about Applejack sometimes."

Then a rolled-up scroll suddenly appeared in front of Cadance with a magical puff and smoke. She gasped and grabbed it in her magic, staring worryingly at it like it was a bomb.

Twilight grimaced at the thing. "Careful, Cadance! Could be a trap!"

"I think it's from Sunburst." She looked at Twilight first and then opened the thing and read it while the others waited. Then she gasped again.

"What?!" Rainbow blurted out hovering close.

"It is from Sunburst!" The princess cried. "Miss Goodread went to the Crystal Empire and talked to him. They checked our library and they tracked a historian that knows of Emperor Grigor!"

"For real? Who are they?!" The other princess gasped too.

"It's a griffon called Gerdie. She went to the Crystal Empire to research about King Sombra and they found her in the library!" She stared at Twilight from the letter. "I can't believe our luck!"

"Neither can I…" Shinning grunted. "It's a trap."

"But… Shinny! It is from sunburst!" Cadance whined.

"I'm sure it is, Cadie." He changed to a more concerned than angry tone. "But there's nothing keeping Princess Celestia from using him to write you a letter and then set up a trap for us."

"Sunburst wouldn't do that!" Starlight hoofed angrily the floor.

"He wouldn't if he had a choice, Starlight." He argued back. "As far as we know, Princess Celestia may have forced him. I know it sound awful. But that's the sort of business we're dealing with."

Starlight didn't answer. Prince Armor was probably right anyways. But Cadance did. "I still want to see."

Her husband sighed. "Cadie. It will be dangerous."

"But what if this griffon lady does have some important information?" She pleaded. "We're flirting with danger ever since this began. Those militiaponies in Ponyville could've hurt us. So could Queen Chrysalis! Princess Luna! I was in the same room as her! We have to take risks, or we won't accomplish anything!"

"Wait… There's something wrong." Rainbow's ears shifted a little. "Ah… It's usually Twilight that does the speech."

Starlight giggled next to her, but Twilight agreed. "Cadance is right, Shinning. We've fought some ponies that meant to hurt us. It's not like those ponies in Ponyville were in a very stable state of mind. I think the worst is in the past."

He grunted again, this time with his ears pulled back. "Fine. It's not like I can forbid you or anything. But let's be careful, okay? The Royal Guard will certainly catch up to us and we'll have to fight."

"You're the Captain of the Guard." Rainbow frowned. "Can't you tell them to stand down, or something?"

Shining shrugged. "Celestia's authority overrules mine, Rainbow. It would be silly for them to stop doing what she commanded because I tell them. I mean, they could switch sides, but that is very unlikely."

"Well, I'll talk to the Captain. Come on, Cadance. We'll need to set up a meeting point or something."

"Wait." Starlight Glimmer approached the table and sat by it resting an elbow on it. "Captain Armor, can I ask you a question?"

"Please, Starlight… Call me Shining. My recruits call me Captain Armor."

The others giggled a little, but Starlight went on. "What are the chances that we'll actually win if we are forced to fight the Royal Guard?"

"Not very high, but not undoable if we're ready, and it depends on the resources they have in the area." He shook his head. "I think that they shouldn't be too different than fighting Ponyville's militia, but they are better equipped, motivated and trained. They keep formations and they follow orders better. They fight different too… I mean, they're more military than law enforcement, but those boys and girls should have enough discipline to keep from hurting somepony."

"You don't look very happy about that, though." The mare paid attention to his posture and he didn't seem very excited. Maybe it was fighting his subordinates that bothered him. She felt it would be better to get him to expose his feelings.

"Are you doing that counseling thing on me?" His ears turned back, and she shrugged. Finally, he sighed. "I'm not worried about the Royal Guard or even the princesses. It's the griffons."

"Hum. Tell me more about this."

"She's definitively doing the counseling thing with you, Shining." Cadance chuckled while the others took their places by the table.

This was serious business though, and Twilight urged him to go on. "Shinny, you've been worried about the griffons ever since we mentioned going to Griffonia in the Changeling Rock.

"We're going into The Lion's territory." He said. "That guy is… Dangerous. I don't like messing with him."

The pink unicorn frowned. "I keep hearing I should be worried about this guy… But he's just the local governor of one of Griffonia's holds."

"He's a leader, Starlight. He makes griffons think the same way that he does."

"Oooh…" She bit her lip and avoided his eyes for a while. "Yeah… So… What is up with the griffons?"

His ears fell. "I don't know if you can shoot the Elements of Harmony at a formation of griffon line infantry. We haven't had a war for centuries. And worse… Warfare conventions are changing and it's likely they won't use that either. Do you know why we use muskets?"

They shook their heads collectively, paying attention. Miss Calcite paid attention too, drawing closer to the baby who was oblivious to the conversation.

"Griffons started using the muskets in the Second Griffon war and we were forced to start using them too because our tactics stopped working. We couldn't just cover our ponies in heavier armor because they just didn't work anymore as they did against the pikes. The griffons though are typically much stronger than the typical pony, that means they can fight with heavier armor, carry sturdier muskets and they can simply stand in place and rain bullets at our soldiers. That is why they developed their revolver muskets and the designs have been evolving since. Also, they don't really care if they get hurt. They just tank it, but ponies don't deal very well with injury."

Ponies didn't look very excited around him.

"It gets worse. They now have machining tools that allows them to make smaller moving pieces and they are also 'riffling' the barrels of their guns. It makes the bullets spin and that increases the precision. They also have new ammunition. While we stayed with the crystal balls, the griffons had been studying better bullets and metal casings."

They didn't seem to understand. "This allowed them to create loading mechanisms that reload the weapon after each shot. They seem to have weapons that can fire some ten times before being easily reloaded and one of our spies mentioned a weapon that can cut down a tree line. This is scary stuff girls. We're used to big bad guys that do a whole lot of fanfare, but they are one. Even when they had an army with them, that would go away once we dealt with the boss."

"Don't we have combat spellcasters in our military reserve?" Rarity frowned. Magic could be pretty scary too. She's seen Twilight casting some pretty scary magic. She and Starlight knew several high-energy elemental spells that could wreak havoc if they wanted. Not to mention griffons too. "Don't we also have griffons that would side with us?"

"How many Starlights and Twilights do we have? The griffons can manufacture those things and put them in the hands of a griffon with some weeks of training, but a trained combat spellcaster takes years to train. And most unicorns want nothing to do with it, and that is another problem. We're falling behind because our scholars are worried with other things. We use magic for everything."

"And griffons…" He went on. "That is the problem. We're seeing that they are siding with The Lion."

"Why, though?" Cadance frowned. "We offer friendship and all its benefits. We're just stronger together."

"That is the problem, Cadie. The Lion has something that is convincing griffons to join him. I don't understand. No one does. They leave family behind sometimes and go to Snow Mountains hold. They're keeping it a secret and it's making me very nervous. I don't want to see Equestria split in a war with the griffons, even if we end up winning. Most ponies don't study war. They don't know what a war actually is. And I think that is why Princess Celestia is being so careful in this whole mess."

He turned to Starlight. "And Twilight and Cadance want to go right into the belly of the beast."

Starlight worried for him. Prince Armor did seem very worried, but not in the funny way Twilight did when she got herself all worked up over something silly. He knew what he was talking about, and the two princesses in question paid attention to what he was saying too. "They just… They hate us. I don't understand why they hate us so much. Most griffons are fine with us, but not them. And they are changing the ones that do like us."

"Did you ever have contact with them? These griffons from Snow Mountains?" Cadance asked.

"Once. Right after I graduated from the academy. Some griffons lived in Canterlot and we had been called to assist a Foal Protective Services seizure."

"Whoa!" Twilight almost jumped out her chair. "Those actually happen?"

"It's not common." He shook his head. "Normally parents admit it when they have trouble with their foals and accept help from social services, but this time was different. It was beyond helping."

It was a hot night and I was stuck with nightshift in the Royal Guard HQ, by Canterlot Palace while everypony else was either having fun or sleeping. It was a nice place for sure, with the Princess liking the Royal Guard so much, but it was still a night shift. Like sticking your bird in a ruby incrusted golden cage. That's the life of a recruit fresh out of the academy. The higher ups got food from the palace's kitchens and the company of the cute maids that worked for the Princess, meanwhile, they stuck you with a partner and you do shifts together with the other pairs of Royal Guards. We're supposed to be sitting there, waiting for something to go wrong, but since the local militia usually took care of things, we spent most of the time doing the most useful things we could think of. Napping, eating stale donuts with cold coffee and chatting up the ladies of the street.

"And you spent time doing…?" Cadance eyed him with a smug grin.

"Napping, of course." He said with a straight face. "I was studying to join the Officer's Academy and I was constantly so tired I couldn't do anything to one of them if they came up to me!"

"Why are you talking like this, Shining Armor?" His sister stared annoyed at him.

"Excuse me? When did I ever get to tell a story in the last nine years?" He stared back. "How do you know that's not how I tell a story?"

She sighed. "Fine…"

That night was particularly boring until a runner burst open the door with orders for a squad of Royal Guards to accompany the Locals in a tough one. Foal Protective Services didn't usually have trouble with their job, nor typically did it at night, but this time it was a griffon family they needed to visit, and it was no ordinary visit. A scared citizen went up to the Locals HQ and denounced a violent domestic dispute. For FPS to go out in the middle of the night, the Locals knew it was serious and so did we. Turned out FPS looked it up and the address was a griffon family in a middle-class neighborhood. The father was a nasty griffon by the name of Greywald with a history of violent altercations with neighbors, store owners, local militia, you name it. This business had bad mojo written all over it.

This guy Greywald… He had been involved in domestic disputes before and his mate had been to the doctor with a scratch or two a few times too many. So, when his cub was born someone in the FPS had the enlightenment of putting his name on a watchlist. Well, it didn't take long for that to pay off. The cub was only one or two years old when this whole mess happened.

Of course, it fell on to my partner, Corporal Street Wise and me to join the Locals and an FPS agent on the way. We met on a street next to our destination. It was a narrow street, not uncommon of Canterlot in the middle-class neighborhoods, with the terrain prices being what they are in there, but it was nice enough with a few small but fancy apartment buildings and even a neighborhood watch, thus the situation we found ourselves in.

I never caught the names of the two Locals and didn't pay much attention to them either. There wouldn't be much to say, anyway. It was back in the times when our barding made everyone look the same. The only difference was that they wore the leather barding of the Locals and we wore the golden one of the Royal Guard.

Huh… Maybe if they had called the Princess things would've turned out different. But that is beyond the point now.

The FPS agent though was a mean pissed-off looking griffon lady. Think Gilda with more years and more griffon and you'd be on the right track. They knew way back when to have agents dedicated to specific demographics. They said things would end up in blood if you sent a pony to take away a griffon cub, or something like that. The point was that the griffon lady was supposed to know this Greywald from some time ago, his mate Grinea and their cub. She never told us the name of the cub, though. Or her own.

We gathered in the corner and the curious citizens listening to the racket were wise enough to skedaddle out of there, so we had the area to ourselves and we gathered to discuss our game plan. The whole time the FPS lady seemed worried about something, and I suppose that rubbed off on me.

"Gentleponies…" She began. "I believe you already know we're going to deal with disturbance of peace. Domestic violence. You need to know that this Greywald is very dangerous and has been known to resort to violence. That is why you were called. We are worried the cub is clearly exposed to a hostile environment and we are worried he can get hurt in one of these… Outbursts."

"Furthermore, the Local Guard is supposed to take the mother into protective custody and in the morning someone from Special Victims will be there to talk to her. Someone finally decided he hurt her enough already."

"But isn't that whenever griffons make out?" My partner elbowed one of the Locals and chuckled at his own joke, but the griffon agent didn't find it funny, so he did us the favor of shutting up and the Local in charge broke the uncomfortable silence.

"It's an apartment. Second floor, only one door. Between the four of us we should be able to keep him from causing trouble and if he does, we should be able to restrain him and let our Miss FPS here do her job."

"Please, try to avoid violence if you can." The griffoness insisted. "Let me talk to him and leave his mate alone for now. She's not the problem."

"Right on." My partner said. "Let's get this done!"

We rushed past the doors to small studio apartment buildings and we knew we had the right one because we could hear the cub crying and this Greywald guy yelling like he was possessed. Something about pampering and spoiling the kid. We entered the building and climbed the stairs as quickly as we could and my guts were telling things would be going south in a hurry, but we had a job to do.

As soon as we arrived, Miss FPS knocked on the door. "Mister Greywald, please open the door."

Things only got worse from there. We heard glass cracking on the other side and the female cried and begged him to stop.

"Recruit! Get this open!" My partner barked at me, shoving the griffon lady out of the way, and I did. I cast the spell they teach you and my partner kicked the door open. All Tartarus broke loose after that. Damn griffon met us with a musket. Shot Street Wise before we even saw the cursed gun. Magical disruption bullet too. The barding stopped most of the damage, but it fragmented and got him good.

I dragged him out of the way and made him swallow a whole vial of healing potion while the two Locals went in with their magical stun batons. I was distracted checking my partner and I only came to when I heard the FPS agent screaming. I'm not going to describe what I saw in there, but I don't think I'll ever forget. Well, I didn't have time to feel sorry for what was left of the Locals. They didn't carry firearms at the time, but Royals did. I grabbed my pistol and shot the bastard. Got him in the gut and he threw a freaking flowerpot at me.

Damn thing was heavy and could've done a number on me, but I managed to protect myself with a shield. Of course, he flew out. Only when our griffon lady rushed after him through the window I noticed the son of a gun had taken the cub with him. I wanted to chase, but my partner was out bleeding, and the griffon lady of the house was curled up crying in the corner with blood all over their apartment.

"Ponies just don't do this."

"My goodness…" Twilight gasped softly. "You never told me that."

"Yeah… It's not the sort of thing you tell your little sis in the family dinner."

"You can stop talking like that now."

"Fine!" He crossed his legs and folded back his ears.

"Shining Armor." Rarity called him. "Whatever happened them?"

"Street Wise got better but left the Guard. Captain White Wall, the Royal Guard's captain at the time told me they found the FPS agent and she didn't make it. That guy had hurt her a lot when she caught up to him. Miss Grinea got better and still lives in Canterlot. Greywald was found dead in a cargo ship that made it to Griffonstone. Bled out on the way. No sign of the cub though. Never appeared ever again." He sighed. "I imagine he died somewhere in the street because he was never registered in an orphanage. Princess Luna wasn't around so… We lost him."

"Yes… He would certainly have been registered if he ever was adopted." His sister agreed.

"I almost gave up myself after that."

"Shinny, I understand what you mean…" Cadance said softly, caressing his hoof with hers. "But you can't judge all griffons because of one really bad griffon. Griffons like Chef Gustave Le Grand would never do something so barbaric."

"Or Gallus." Twilight added with some pride.

"The point is that they could if they wanted, Cadance. And the griffons in the place you want to go all want to."

"We will be careful. We're probably going to help The Lion some with our research and that should give us safe-conduct through his lands."

"I hope so. Maybe I'm worrying too much."

"Yeah. It kinda runs in the family." She grinned at him and he chuckled.

"Touché."

The ponies giggled and Twilight pointed outside. "We better talk to the Captain. We need a place to meet with Sunburst, Goodread and their griffon friend. He might know where."

The two princesses left without any delay and headed astern where the Captain held the ship's controls.

"Aye, Lasses?" He greeted them with a smile.

"What is the nearest city? Preferably somewhere small and out of the way?" Twilight asked.

"Ahh… That'be Haybale, lass. More a rural village than a town. More a place where the farmponies gather fer drinkin' after the day's work is done. Plantations all over and not a soul in gold armor, if ye catch me meaning."

"Perfect!" The pink one chimed with a large grin. "I'll write a letter to Sunburst and we'll find a place to meet there!"

"Whoa! Lasses! Mind sharing?"

Twilight giggled. "Sorry. One of our friends just sent us a letter telling us he found something important to our investigation. We really need to see him, and we plan on meeting there."

"Aye…" He sounded worried. "The Guards be right behind us, lasses. They'll catch up to us if we stop."

"I understand your worries, captain. But it's a risk we're willing to take."

'Aye, princess. You say, we do."

Every teleporter facility should be equipped with an array of terminals so that different operator companies have a chance of buying a slot. In the minds of the ponies in charge competition stimulated variety and excellence, and they were right. The result was that several companies bid on the slots and soon after each facility was completed all the slots were taken and the users had a variety of prices and services to choose from.

Cargo transfer platforms were an exception. Not only they required a larger size to be reasonably useful, but their operation required too much magical energy from the facility, meaning that their operation was too expensive and time-consuming.

It was simply much more useful to put whatever one wanted transported on an airship, even the older zeppelins and have it shipped across Equestria. The problem is that even a modern airship with magical engines could take days or weeks to reach a destination and certain products with very low shelf-life, typically obscure or exotic magic things needed to be on their destination within the day or they would be lost.

Usually, those would be such rare and expensive items their owners would do anything to ensure their safe arrival. Including paying ludicrously high prices for the teleportation fee. Add to that the fact that only one platform could be built by facility and teleporter operator companies started foaming at the mouth whenever one was under construction.

It was said that the auditions for the freight transfer platform whenever a new facility was built would involve seductive ponies, Bits being thrown around, swearing, blunt objects, arson and generalized threats to Harmony as a whole.

So, like a mother that would take away the toys causing the children to fight among themselves, Princess Celestia decided that the freight platforms would be state owned. The profits would be reverted to the Royal Treasury.

But that still meant that the platforms would require operators such as those the teleporter companies already had trained. Rumors said that it was one of the few times Princess Celestia swore in her ages-long life.

Since she was the owner of the platforms though, the Princess decided that she would preside the auditions in hopes that the ponies would behave with her. Rumors said that she almost murdered a pony in one of the first meetings.

Following a series of unsuccessful meetings, she decided after much screaming into pillows and ripping them apart that the Royal Guard's Magical Engineering Corps and that her School for Gifted Unicorns would train private individuals that wanted to work for the state as teleporter operators.

Then the Teleporter Operators Union sued the Royal House.

Rumors said that Princesses Luna, Cadance, Twilight and Flurry Heart managed to avoid an event unknown to the general public that was believed to involve the dissolution of the Senate, of the Equestrian Confederacy and of all civil institutions. But this was never confirmed.

Finally, the Princess decided that she would choose what company she would grant the operation of each of her teleporters. The next day after the meeting newspapers proudly reported on the heroic actions by Doctor Kind Hope of the Canterlot Royal Hospital in saving the life of the marketing representative for EqMagical Travel who had been forcefully fed a pouch of Bits. Unconfirmed rumors said that the princess had ordered the recently married Prince-Consort to make that pony swallow those Bits after they tried to bribe her. Unfortunately, he didn't understand that she was being emphatic, rather than giving him a direct command.

Finally, the drama ended when Princess Celestia tossed pieces of paper with city names in a room full of ponies, soft batons and a table for three behind thick bars. Prince-Consort Chocolate Velvet called it 'The PG Gladiator Games', but nopony understood what he meant by that except Celestia and Luna.

"And that is how freight teleporters were made!" Marble Hoof told the others with a huge grin.

"So, what are the chances that any of that is real?" Semolina sat next to Grape Donut, who was close to his griffon mercenary friend. The others milled about.

"Not very likely…" The mercenary had become bored with the overexcited pony.

Their arrival had been mostly without commotion. A group of ponies and a griffon traveling together wasn't ordinary, especially with a large griffon of military build, but it also wasn't particularly strange. Their arrival did turn a few heads among the authorities, though not enough that it would cause disruptions. A few documents were checked, and questions asked, but the problems ended there.

The whole group sat in the large room that was the lounge. It had a giant window showing the platform and in the back it an ice cream and a pizza vending stands. Rows of seating were available to representatives of companies waiting to receive whatever cargo might be teleported in under their responsibility. It was a luxurious place, meant for rich ponies representing rich companies. Not for backwater town militias and griffon mercenaries.

"Wow!" Marble Hooves had his face glued to the giant glass window, staring at the thing on the other side. "This is so cool!"

The platform was in the open field, surrounded by a tall fence and was little more than a raised metal and crystal platform, but the pony could imagine and wonder at all the magical components underneath that made the thing work. A few ponies seemed to be cleaning the platform, collecting debris and carefully inspecting it. On the back and to the side of the platform was a tower with forward inclined glasses.

His head shifted a little to the side. "Is that a control tower or something?"

"Yes! That is exactly what it is. A control tower!" A griffon approached him. Not nearly as big as Flying Snake with a light tan body and white head, not only that, but wearing a pair of glasses and a white coat, but also with a much friendlier attitude. "Hi! I'm Tech Guy!"

"Hum… Weird name…" Marble bumped his closed fist.

"Yeah…" The griffon frowned a little. "My real name is Gemmerich", but everyone just calls me Tech Guy. You know… The one that actually went to college and knows what to do if the magic components start dying on them."

"Don't flatter yourself, TG." The big griffon drew their attention and started making the presentations. Marble Hoof didn't even notice, but a group of griffons and diamond dogs, of all the creatures, had just arrived by the large doors to the lounge.

"Diamond dogs! How cool!" He gasped.

"Guys, this here is my mate, Geneva." A griffon stooped next to him, waving and grinning at the ponies. A white and big griffoness with white body and yellow head along with her green eyes. "She is our weapons specialist. If it shoots, smashes, cuts or pokes, she's the griffon you wanna talk to. That over there with your geek is my geek. You can call him Tech Guy and call him if anything looks like it is about to blow up in the airship. He had another nickname, but we didn't really care."

"Ha ha…" The griffon in question sighed. "Hi, ponies."

"And this here…" He gestured towards the small griffon with the black-spotted yellow body and white head. "Is Ocelot."

Flying Snake was still talking. "And that over there is Mama, and her pack. Best airship crew ever!"

It was a group of ten or so diamond dogs that waved at the ponies. All of them wearing their typical jackets and hunched postures. Except for Mama, who had a pearl necklace.

"Hum. Nice meeting you guys." Grape Donut greeted them, next to his wife.

"Isn't it a bit weird? A pack of diamond dogs and three griffons?"

"Diamond dogs good airship crew!" Mama said. "Honest work for dogs, yes? Can shoot griffon weapons too. Better than raiding pony traders again. No?"

The other diamond dogs agreed with her and meanwhile a white earth pony mare, wearing a dark-blue suit and carefully tied black mane approached with a clipboard hanging from her neck and a very unfriendly expression. Next to her a young and meek beige and white unicorn.

"Mister… Snake?" She sounded professional, if unfriendly.

"Yeah. That's me." The others made silence. "And you are?"

"Can I have your real name… Sir?" She didn't answer and stared angrily.

"That is it."

"No, it is not." Then she sighed. "The Princess has requested that your airship be teleported with the utmost urgency, so we've made some of our costumers very angry for shifting the schedule around. Therefore, we would greatly appreciate it if you moved it out of the platform as soon as it's arrived. The magical capacitors take half an hour to power back up… After that we're losing Bits by the second the platform is not cleared."

"Ah, don't worry miss." He waved a paw dismissively. "We're leaving as soon as she's here."

"Thank you, sir. EQMagical appreciates it." She seemed to relax a little and became more friendly. "She should be arriving within minutes. Amber Flower here will take care of teleporter operations. She is a trainee with EQMagical from Bay County University and is accredited with the Teleporter Operators Union. If you have any question, please direct it at her."

With that the mare turned to the other costumers in the lounge, the ones that were actually paying to use the platform and looked particularly miffed about the change in the schedule. And while she talked to them, Marble Hoof approached the unicorn mare that talked to the griffon mercenary.

"I don't really have any questions." Flying Snake shrugged. "Just thanks for you work."

"It's a pleasure, sir!" She smiled and then turned to the militiapony unicorn. "Yes?"

"Cool job that you have!" He grinned excitedly. "Is it hard?"

"Any unicorn can do it, really." She smiled a little more at him. "You just need some training. That is all."

Then her boss returned. "Come on, Amber. The platform should be ready to go soon."

"Hey! Ma'am!" Marble Hoof approached the professional mare. "Is it true what they say about the construction of the freight teleporters?"

Her face conveyed the ultimate form of chagrin. "We don't talk about that, sir."

And then she turned her back to him. Amber hurried after her towards the door.

"I expected they would be angrier, considering we're intruding on their schedule." Grape Donut came nearby with his new griffon friend while the two mares left.

"The Princess has this weird power…" The big griffon said. "Ponies will move mountains if she asks. I can guarantee that if we were by ourselves it would cost us an arm and a leg, and we would be thrown days down the schedule."

It didn't take long and a steam whistle sounded. The ponies on the platform rushed out of it until a few seconds later the whistle stopped, and the platform powered up with pink magical light. Ponies stared from the other side of the glass like it was new year's fireworks. Unicorn horns itched and a low humming sound resonated through the glass. There was a bang and the air smelled funny, but there she was.

It had a metallic hull, hardly pristine but rusted in several places, clearly a seaship converted into airship, but it lacked sails. What it had was a pair of tall charcoal-stained chimneys, and instead of the elegant swan wings of the princess' airship, this one had its magical engines mounted on the sides of the hull. She was shorter and had a deeper draught. It seemed sturdier and it even had shipboard weapons, including a few broadside cannons and a pair of ballistae near the bow. It even had a griffon reaching forward and screaming in flight for figurehead.

"She's a beauty, ain't she?" The big griffon grinned.

"Wow! This is so cool!" Marble's eyes shone like a child's before the Princess of the Night. "It's a converted griffon steamship!"

"It's a piece of junk!" The pegasus mare of the group half-panicked. "We're all gonna die in this thing!"

"Hey! The Pequod is a fine airship!" The griffon grinned some more. "It's saved our asses more than once."

"It is a piece of junk…" His mate wasn't amused.

"No, it's not! It's a nice ex-whaling ship turned into a chariot of the gods!"

"The princess' airship will leave this thing behind faster than Brisk Bronco's fillyfriends." The pegasus mare facehoofed.

"No, no." Mama raised a finger. "Pony pretty airships fast, yes. But need recharging mana batteries with sails. Griffon steamship not so fast, but stronger and constant. Turns better too!"

"Mama's right, pony." The mercenary added. "We'll catch them off-guard when they're recharging the batteries and don't have the juice to run. Not to mention we'll ambush and hook them with the ballistae. They'll drag us with them if they run until we reverse our engines. Then they're going nowhere."

"Cool!" Grape Donut grinned. "Let's get this thing flying!"

Waking up in a bed in the Bordello of Candy was a special treat even for one from royalty, used to all the comforts and luxuries the ponies provided to their beloved rulers. Even if in his home in Canterlot he had every luxury he would ever desire, the Bordello had that special feeling attached to it. A stone ceiling and walls that brought an exciting rustic feeling and the windows that showed snow had clung to the metal framing outside. The wind cried outside but the flickering light and warmth from the fireplace met that and created a fantastic feeling of comfort and safety.

The room's decorations were shields and on top of swords and spears hanging on the wall, a banner with one of the insignias of the Royal House, a white field with the combined images of Equestria's Sun and Moon combined with horns and wings. Another had the insignia for Princess Cadance, the Crystal Heart with golden arabesques. It was the sort of thing that Chocolate Velvet liked. This awesome pony heraldry.

The bed was great too! The mattress was denser than most ones out there. It was a sort of 'alicorn problem'. Their bodies were bigger and so they needed bigger beds, but they were also heavier, and normal mattresses were uncomfortable to them. The one he was lying on was perfect, like the one on his bed in the palace.

Bed sheets were great too! The kind of soft satin one would expect to be on the beds of royalty. All in whites and soft pinks. Not his favorite colors, but that didn't detract from the quality.

Last night was almost as surreal as the day before. The Siege of the Bordello of Candy would go down in history as the most bizarre battle ever. He had to admit that Chrysalis does play the evil queen really well and her Praetorians put up a fierce fight. Once or twice he wondered if they understood it was a mock battle. Was it though? Things were confusing and even more in the following night.

The look on Chrysalis face when Thorax walked in with Celestia was a thing of legends, Luna trying to explain to Celestia how come Cadance had escaped was the best though. Things worked out wonderfully though and Friendship prevailed.

He didn't really know if he could say that 'Friendship' was what happened, but something along the spectrum. The important thing was that things worked out in the end, they had some fun fighting each other and seeing Celestia in action was one of the most awesome things he'd ever seen.

Really poor choice of words considering what happened in the night… But the sentiment is right. Equestrian culture was a bit confusing at times. Regardless, his mind roused softly with memories and with Celestia's creamy aroma still on the sheets, as much as Luna's blueberry-y one.

And Chrysalis' bleach-like aroma.

He grunted taking a hoof to his head and lifted his head slowly. It was still full of headache-inducing alcoholic byproducts and he feared any carelessness might cause him to hurl up. So, feeling the mattress sir under somepony else's weight behind him, he turned slowly, and his snout collided with Thorax's.

He screamed and jumped up while the other screamed too but fell on the side of the bed. On the other side of the large bed Luna's head rose from the pillow with sleepy eyes and then collapsed back into it after seeing nothing important was happening.

The brown alicorn 'eeped' and reached to help Thorax stand. "Thorax, I'm so sorry! I'm just not used to waking up next to another stallion."

"It's alright." The other held onto Chocolate's leg and massaged his antler with the other hoof. "I can't say that I am either."

A bit far from the bed, in the giant room, Chrysalis sat on a comfy reading chair, holding a book in her green magic aura and stared at the two with some level of disdain. "You two are so immature I don't really understand why we put up with you."

"Good morning to you too, Chrysalis." Velvet growled, sitting in the center of the bed.

"Can't you say something nice, for once?" The other glowered at her.

The queen closed the book and sighed. Thought for a second.

"You didn't embarrass me." She smiled exaggeratedly and clapped her hooves together. "Yay!"

Then Celestia came out of the bathroom. "Come on! The sooner you get out of bed, the faster you'll feel better! We have a lot to do today!"

"Can't we take a day off?" Chrysalis frowned. "Really… Let's pretend today is Heart Day, since we never really stop on Heart Days like everyone does. And then do it all again."

"No. We need to help your special children."

"Don't call them 'special', Celestia." The queen fumed. "It makes it sound like they're retarded."

The princess stared angrily at her for a second. "Fine. Let's call them your soul-scarred, lame-bodied, mentally-unstable, brain-washed, nightmarish failed attempt at super-soldier secret children."

"Sarcasm ill fits you, Celestia. It is too early, and they are probably sleeping now."

"No, they are not. They are afraid and they need you to be their mother and their leader."

Chrysalis was going to say something, having inhaled and closed her eyes in the most condescending way both males watching could imagine but a knock on the door stopped her, followed by Discord's voice.

"Am I going to be traumatized by what I see if I open this door?"

The princess giggled. "No, Discord. It is quite safe."

The door opened and he stared inside. "Seriously, Celestia. Put those golden things on. You look naked without them."

"Ponies go around naked all the time, Discord." She deadpanned.

"Well, yes!" He struggled with the words. "It's different! Trust me."

"He's right." Chrysalis added. "You do look naked without those things. I mean… More naked."

She huffed and went back into the bathroom, coming out wearing her royal regalia. "There!"

All the present nodded agreeably, except for Luna who was still sleeping, and Discord proceeded. "I need your counselling, Celestia…"

"Why?" She grinned the most amused of grins. "Do you have a guilty conscience over helping Twilight and Cadance with their personal quest behind my back?"

He blinked twice at her and then pointed angrily at Chrysalis. "Did she tell you something she shouldn't?"

She cocked her head. "Actually, I wasn't aware that Chrysalis was helping them too."

The queen facehoofed, with both hooves and profoundly. "Discord, you dunce!"

The princess giggled in a good mood. "Oh my. It makes a lot of sense now. Though I already suspected. What did you tell them?"

"I told them about the Animus Imperative."

"The what?" Chrysalis raised an eyebrow, but she was ignored.

"About the things that I did. I didn't tell them about you, though. I… Uh… Sent them to Naminé."

The princess sighed and her ears fell sadly. "Naminé is confused, Discord. She's going to fill their heads with the wrong ideas. She's going to show them things that she herself doesn't understand."

"Well, that is the thing. Twilight has shown me that ponies are more mature. And that she and Cadance will figure out the meaning of the things that happened."

"It is only going to cause hurt and heartbreak, Discord."

"That is what I told them! But they insisted! But I agree with them that, especially in these days, there are things in that history that ponies could afford to know. Maybe be a little humbler." He opened his arms.

She sighed. "So, where is Naminé now?"

"I wasn't going to tell you, even if I knew." He crossed his arms, but then he waved a hand dismissively. "That is not what I came here to talk to you."

Her ears perked up. "What was it then?"

"How come you are so patient and lenient with him?" The Queen complained almost like a child.

"Well, for one, Discord didn't try to make super-soldiers behind my back with resources that I'd given away for the sake of a project of mutual trust and interdependency, as though I was trying to teach a valuable lesson about friendship." She stared. "And also, I understand Discord. He is bound to those ponies and I rather we all remained on good terms. Finally, this whole thing will go away when I catch up to Twilight if the ambush we planned near Baltimare works. If things go well, I won't have to worry about anything Discord has told them. Unlike your children."

The Queen grumbled and sunk back into the chair, quieting herself.

The princess turned back to Discord. "Well, tell me what happened, Discord."

"I was in northern territories of Griffonia and I just kept two armies of griffons from killing each other."

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "Next time let them kill each other. Less griffons would be less problems."

"Don't listen to her. You did a wonderful job." Celestia smiled at him. "But why were those griffons there? What are the details?"

"I believe that they were acting behind your back. They were going to attack The Lion's fortress and I know they're not supposed to."

"You are right. Not only they're not supposed to do anything like this, but it was likely to get all of them killed. There is a reason The Lion is so proud of Griffinsky." She nodded. "I will have my Justiciars investigate this with the utmost urgency. Silkfeathers is very likely behind this."

"There is one other thing… The griffons there. The Northerners. They were really respectful to me. Even friendly. They even listened to me. I didn't expect that, and I know they are hostile to other griffons and ponies. I don't really know what to make of it."

"Interesting. Maybe there is something in their localized culture that draws them to you. You should learn about and cultivate that."

"What happens when Discord turns against you because he's suddenly siding with the griffons?" Chocolate grumbled sitting in the bed, next to Thorax.

"Please, Velvet. Cynicism is Chrysalis' job." She looked back at him. "Discord is not going to turn against us. He's learned that lesson already. At most, he would try to convince us that we are wrong and give ample way to a conversation, if he sees that the griffons are right."

"Welp, sounds like a mission." Discord pointed with a thumb behind his back. "Some griffoness said I should go to Griffindell and see a Lady Gwendolen."

"She is The Lion's mate. She keeps to herself and never leaves the city. If you manage to befriend her, we could have an opening to reach The Lion and then find an easier peaceful solution to this whole situation." The princess giggled. "Then Chrysalis wouldn't have to act so though because she's so afraid of him."

All they heard was a petulant harrumph.

In the Baltimare Teleporter Facility, one hour had passed and the old airship was still in the teleportation platform. The schedule was about to spontaneously combust, and the world would end in a meeting room full of suicidal corporate officers. Not really likely, but that was how Top Brass felt and she was about to rip her mane out. She stomped her hooves on the crystal platform until she was close enough to the airship that she could talk to the ocelot-griffon with his back to the railing.

"Excuse-me, sir!" She called in her most passive-aggressive professional tone, but the griffon didn't answer or even react.

"Excuse-me! Sir!" She tried again. This time with the voice she'd speak to her foal when she was about to ruin his day. But the griffon still ignored her.

He didn't ignore her though when she launched her clipboard with the precision of a guided magical missile to the back of the griffon's head.

"Ow!" He finally turned to her and held on to the railing. "What the feather?!"

"Get this piece of junk out of my platform!" She pointed out with a hoof as though she could move it by sheer force of her anger.

"They're having some troubles with the boiler. This thing isn't one of these new fancy airships that you snap a finger and they fly, you know!"

"Do you have any idea how much debt you are causing simply by keeping this thing in here?!"

The griffon shrugged and she was glad there was nothing alive next to her because she would have murdered it.

Finally, there was a bang and the two chimneys started bellowing black smoke up in the air.

"There, are you happy?"

"No! I'll be happy when this thing is so far away that I never have to see it ever again!" She spat back. "How does this thing even work?! How can you need steam to run a magical engine?! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Beats me. All I know is that they have to boil the water and pressurize the system yet. So, it's still going to take a few minutes. You better relax."

She screeched so high the diamond dogs working the boiler thought there was a leak in the steam system. Some three quarters of an hour later the thing's magical engines were running (however those cursed things worked) with enough force they managed to get it off the platform. Its mechanical legs let off steam and retreated into the hull, sealing off with their feet while the airship gained altitude and accelerated forward and upwards.

"Ugh. Finally!" She then turned to the ponies in hardhats inspecting the platform. "Get this thing ready! We're doing overtime tonight!"

With the fury of a raging dragon inside, she stood quietly by the side of the platform while the ponies quickly cleared the platform and all of them waited for the next transfer in.

Nothing happened and she groaned tapping her hoof on the floor while the ponies exchanged concerned stares.

A few minutes passed and still nothing happened. "I can't believe this!"

She stomped off towards the tower with an infuriated scream. Opened the door and climbed the stairs grinding her teeth together until she finally came through the door into the control room where a brown earth pony stallion in the company's uniform was next to one of the platform's magic control panels with the young beige unicorn, Amber Flower, staring confusingly at her panel. On the other side, there was another unicorn with another panel, doing something to it with his magic.

"Don't tell me that thing damaged the platform! I'll kill myself!" She screeched and drew attentions to her.

"No." Said the stallion. "There's an unscheduled transfer coming in from an unregistered platform."

She blinked twice. "Is that even possible?"

The unicorn next to the stallion sounded confused and stared up at Top Brass. "Hum... I can't explain it… But it seems so."

"Great. What are you doing in the university if you can't even get this thing to work?!" She walked closer. "Can't you deny it and get to the right transfer?"

The other unicorn let up his work on his panel. "It's not letting us do anything."

Then the door opened, and one giant griffon walked in. All dark-gray and white head with green eyes. The two mares squeaked at the sight and the male unicorn hid behind his panel. The earth pony walked around the panel. "Sir. You can't be in here."

The griffon sat and unslung his musket from his shoulder and pointed it. "It's cool. The boss said I can shoot any ponies stupid enough to not have understood that they are not in control of the situation anymore. So, kindly understand that you're not in charge here or you'll just give the cleaning staff a lot of unpleasant work because I can guarantee you that this isn't loaded with your pony magic stunning crystal balls."

He spoke with an accent none of them recognized and then another griffon entered, but that one was actually a little smaller than griffons tended to be and was brown furred with a darker head. He also carried a firearm with him but kept it on its back."

"Alright, listen." The pony stood. "I don't know what you want, but there is no money in here."

The smaller griffon laughed and said something in another language none of the ponies understood, warbling and sing-y.

Finally, another pair of griffons entered. The first was fit and serious with purple body and mustard-colored feathers on his head and he also spoke in that same language. He turned to the other griffon that followed him and said some another thing the ponies didn't understand.

While the big griffon by the door closed and locked it, the one that had entered with him walked past the smaller one with a grin. A big yellow and white griffoness wearing a white coat over her body, she approached the terminal with Top Brass and the young unicorn, pushing the earth pony mare out of the way violently and causing her to crash to the wall with a yelp. Top Brass wisely chose to make herself as small as she could and be quiet.

The griffoness was about twice as big as the small unicorn frozen in place by the terminal, trembling and looking up at her like a terrified mouse. She stared down at the pony showing a cruel grin and malevolent magenta eyes.

"Please don't hurt me… I'm just an intern from the university." She pleaded with the softest of voices.

"Oh… The Bay County University? I graduated there you know?" She grinned maliciously and the pony squeaked and lowered herself on the ground. "It was nice being a researcher there until they decided my ideas were too dangerous and Celestia kicked me out. So, I don't really like it there. Or ponies that go to that particular university. In fact, I don't really like ponies at all."

"Ma'am, please don't hurt her. It's not her fault." The stallion said and the purple griffon told her something with an irritated tone, but she ignored both and turned her attention to the magical terminal.

Then purple griffon said something else to what she answered calmly and turned back to the unicorn next to her. "I'm gonna need a small sample of your thaumatic flux, if it is not too much to ask."

"My what?" She stared with confusion, almost like she'd forgot she was scared.

Then the griffoness slammed the unicorn's head horn first into the panel and it lit up with magical light.

"Thank you." The griffoness grinned at the now unconscious unicorn and puled the sleeve of her coat revealing a gold and crystal device in her wrist. After fiddling with it for an instant, the platform outside started the process of powering up and the steam whistle sounded.

"What are you doing?" The white mare still was in the floor, but some of her courage had returned enough to be angry that these griffons were doing something to her platform. "Do you brutes have any idea how expensive this is?"

Then she noticed the purple griffon stood next to her and winced when he lowered his body to be on the same level as she, staring at her with his piercing golden eyes.

"Do you see gentlegriffons? This is the thing we were talking about yesterday." He spoke to the other griffons, particularly the yellow female that approached, but stared at the pony and spoke perfectly in the universal language of Common Equestrian with a calculated and cold voice. "This pony doesn't understand the situation she is in. She thinks that the worst that can happen here is that her company is going to lose some money and that she'll lose her monthly bonus. Maybe her boss will yell at her. Perhaps she'll have to postpone that vacation and her little foal may have to spend next Hearth Warming without that toy he wanted so much."

"The interesting thing about this…" He went on. "Is that her boss doesn't understand the situation either. Neither does her little foal. They are all going to be angry that this mare didn't perform exactly as she was expected. Ponies don't understand when their lives are in danger anymore. They don't fear for their lives. They think that their princesses are going to save them. That their heroes are always around the corner. They've learned that their side always wins, and how could they not? They are the good guys. They are the chosen ones that bring Friendship to the rest of us savages."

Outside a flash announced the completion of the teleportation procedure and the smaller brown griffon said something in their strange language, to what the purple answered and the smaller one broke the glass of the tower. The group flew out and the room was flooded with the coarse sound of magical engines, different from the typical ones they knew. More important than looking out though, the stallion went to the pony mare on the ground.

"Miss Brass, are you injured?" He held her softly in his hooves.

"I don't think I am." She stumbled a little with the words, and only them she realized how much she was trembling. "What just happened?"

"They teleported an airship!" The male unicorn now was at the broken window and stared down, shouting over the horrible sound those magical engines were making. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"Stop gawking at it and go call emergency services!" The older stallion yelled at him from the blood-stained terminal. "That griffon hurt Amber Flower."

The unicorn turned from the window and gasped at seeing his co-worker next to his boss with a cracked horn letting go little sparks and blood on the carpet.


	15. New Friends New Revelations

The princesses and the queen had already left for breakfast. Celestia wanted to talk to Discord before he left and made sure that they would have ample time to talk to him. However, while Chocolate Velvet was curious about all those things they were likely to talk about he had just received a letter and he had a feeling he was not going to like what he was going to read.

He didn't really think that his presence was necessary, and not that he didn't like to be involved, but his head took some more time to reorient itself after last night. He supposed that with age came resilience. Even in that regard.

The result of staying behind was that he was left alone when one of Cadance's handmaidens… Hoofmaidens? One of her ponies that worked in the Bordello arrived with a letter for him. He wasn't entirely sure how did they know to send it to the Crystal Empire and not to the palace in Canterlot but that wasn't important right then.

It was a letter from the Equestrian Chivalric Society informing him that as an aspiring knight he ought to perform great deeds of honor and might, which was almost the exact of opposite of what he had been doing these past days. So, it didn't really surprise him that much that he got a letter like that from them.

What surprised him was that they had the guts to tell him that his fellowship could be revoked because of that. He had to wonder what went on in the head of some pampered up idiotic noble sitting his haunches in Canterlot that complained about ponies going on and killing monsters to protect the population that they were not being 'knightly enough'.

He simply sat in the corridor by their room's door, staring angrily at the letter he held with his telekinesis, trying to process its content when Thorax approached him. "Hi, Chocolate. Uh… Can you talk?"

"Hey, Thorax. Sure." He smiled and folded the letter before stuffing it inside his peytral and then smiled at the changeling, as friendly as he could to the nice changeling king. Unlike Chrysalis, he liked the always nice guy. "What's up?"

"I uh…" He rubbed his legs together while staring to the side. "It's about Chrysalis. I think I need to talk to somepony about her… And well... We're both guys and I guess my best friend is Spike, but we have 'being married to important mares' in common."

"Yeah…" The alicorn mused. "I guess we do. And I suppose Cadance isn't available… Well, I'm not sure I can be of much help, but I'll do my best!"

"It's alright!" The king smiled back at him and them Chocolate pointed down the corridor fot the changeling to walk with him. The alicorn believed that proximity sometimes called for some distance, and it seemed that was exactly what Thorax needed to talk about Chrysalis. He also thought it would be better to not stick to a place, rather walk around a bit not to draw too much attention.

Therefore, they walked together down the stone-walled corridor. It had windows every few paces and a long beautiful red rug that made the two somewhat conscious about simply stepping on the thing. Thorax simply wasn't used to this sort of luxury and Chocolate paid attention to his new friend. There were also pedestals with beautiful vases or amphorae, all with tasteful love-related themes. Whatever it was that they could see in this corridor, it had a beautiful style. There were also elegant paintings of ponies or some other creature. From the arched ceiling beautiful candelabra provided illumination by means of magical crystals. It all attested to Cadance's good taste in decoration.

It amazed the brown alicorn that Cadance managed to make that place so titillating but without becoming tacky. Talk about talent.

Outside the snowfall seemed to have picked up and one could barely see beyond the glass and the snow that accumulated on the metal framing. Even more so than before. Inside the temperature was comfortable and the howling from the wind was barely noticeable.

They kept in silence for a while until after a few paces Thorax finally spoke again. "So, I guess I need some advice in dealing with Chrysalis'… Let's call it nastiness."

"I bet you do." Chocolate chuckled in good humor and the other laughed reservedly.

"Well, you remember how nice she was last night. And then how mean she was this morning. It makes me angry that she can completely ignore that she's hurt you once, and then hurt you again after she's been so nice. Once she even apologized."

"And when she does this sort of thing she did when we woke up. I really don't know how to deal with it." The 'stag beetle-pony' wasn't complaining, rather his tone indicated more frustration at his inability to deal with his partner. It was a shame Cadance wasn't available, and they were what each had at the moment. "She's just so mean and angry all the time with some small moments of niceness."

"I think that she's convinced that she needs to do this to get what she wants, Thorax. She just lets her guard down once in a while." The alicorn looked at him. "I mean… Celestia thinks so. And she also thinks that Chrysalis will benefit from a loving and caring partner such as yourself. She wasn't that bad at night when she was legitimately having fun playing evil queen. Anyway, the fact that she acts nice when she lets her guard down makes Celestia think that she is good inside and does want to come out but thinks she can't afford it."

"Yeah…" Thorax agreed, staring down sheepishly. "I suppose. It's not very often, though."

"Celestia told me that Chrysalis suffered a lot in her life, Thorax. The sort of things that makes one hard and callous." He stepped a little closer in their walk. "Not that I think that you need to suffer because she did... But it seems to me that you want to help. Patience will go a long way with her, I believe. And showing her that she can be nice and still get nice things."

He paused for a second. "As long as you aren't getting yourself hurt because of her. I agree with Celestia that you can help her, but I certainly don't think that you must sacrifice yourself because of her. I feel like I can't stress this enough."

"I want to help her, Velvet… I know she's nicer inside. She's let me see that side of hers sometimes. I think that maybe I could afford to be more romantic and that could bring her out more often." Thorax added after a small pause.

"Really?" The other stared forward, thinking for a second. "I don't think that you should violate yourself because of her… I mean… She needs to do her part too and you shouldn't go too much out of your comfort zone for her."

"Oh… I like her." His cheeks reddened a little. "I'm just not sure how to show it to her."

"I think you're already doing a great job, Thorax." The alicorn grinned at him. "But if you feel like you want to make a gesture, I believe Cadance would be able to help you, if you're willing to let this whole mess blow away. I mean, it's not like you're in a particular hurry, right?"

Thorax grinned friendly. "Yeah. But… Your cutie mark is a heart shaped box of bonbons. You're kinda good with romantic things too, aren't you? Romance is kind of a knight thing too, isn't it?"

The alicorn stopped and blinked a few times, causing the other to stop too and look at him. "Huh. I suppose you're right."

Thorax grinned some more. "How do you get romantic with Luna and Celestia?"

Chocolate put his leg on his chin and thought with a hum. "Well… They are sophisticated, but they put heartfelt feelings over grand gestures. I imagine that if we are aiming at Chrysalis' real heart inside the shell, that ought to help. Okay… I know something you can try. Dressing up all gentlestalion-like and treating her like a lady. It works wonders with Celestia and Luna."

"I never really tried that. I was afraid she'd make fun of me." Thorax grinned excitedly. "But I can try! It's not like she's gonna divorce me or anything if she doesn't like it. Right?"

"Awesome!" The alicorn put a wing over his back, closing in conspiratorially. "So, next time you're gonna be alone with her, you should… I don't know… Do you changelings polish your carapace or something when you want to look sophisticated? It just dawned on me that Chrysalis is the only one of you that has a mane!"

"We don't really do this sort of things because we're not really used to this sort of things amongst ourselves…" Thorax explained while his eyes drifted down. "I mean, changelings usually turned into other creatures to... Uh… Flirt. We always did it to other species, it was always some sort of manipulation."

"Thorax!" Chocolate took a step back and his wings flared. "This is awesome!"

"It is?" One of his eyebrows rose.

"Yes! You get to brave the unknown! To create the traditions!"

"Oh!" Thorax grinned too. "You're right!"

"You just have to catch Chrysalis' fancy! Now that may be hard, but we'll work this out and when this whole mess is done with, I'm sure Cadance will help!"

"Great! But what do I do now?"

"We're going to try some ornaments. Celestia loves my golden mane fishnet." Then he paused for a second and his ears perked up with a smile. "I just had a great idea. She's gonna love it!"

In the restaurant a few of the tables had been set aside and put together to welcome the Princesses and the Queen. The other patrons remained respectfully a table away because they seemed to be talking about something important with Lord Discord. Except for the maids and waiters that worked in the Bordello's restaurant. Their table was well stuffed for a breakfast of royalty with all sorts of tasty fruits, juices and sweets.

Breakfast had extended way into the morning, but their attentions were on the photographs spread on top of the table, not on the food. One of them showed a city from afar. It covered a mountain and its base with a big fortification at the top and itself surrounded by black stone walls that connected tall hills at each corner. The sky was a heavy mass of dark gray clouds.

"This is Griffindell." Celestia held the photo for Discord to see clearly. "The capital for Snow Mountains Hold. The mountain is 'The Roost' and the four hills are called 'Sentinels'. At the top you can see Griffinsky, The Lion's fortress. Though the entire city is fortified. Its population is composed of six-hundred and fifty thousand griffons. Most of them local griffons and some that decided to join them from surrounding cities, and some other cities in the Confederation. Mostly Griffonstone, Manehattan and Fillydelphia."

"Why?" He wore a pair of star-shaped glasses and took notes with a small notebook and a wobbly spiral pencil. "Why are they going there?"

"Because they are stupid." The changeling queen grumbled but was ignored.

"Well, that is what you are going there to find out." Luna grinned.

"No. Discord is going there because he can reach out to those griffons without them immediately closing up." The white princess shook her head.

"Yes." Luna agreed, rolling her eyes. "But still, information would be good."

"I understand." He nodded winking at her. "I'm not going there to spy. I'm going there to make friends. But If I learn some stuff that is a good thing."

"Yes!" Luna giggled happily.

"There is something fundamentally messed up in a world where you sent the Spirit of Chaos to spy on the griffons and not the changeling infiltrators." Chrysalis mumbled.

Discord pointed casually at the queen. "She actually has a point. Can't changelings just go in and figure this stuff out? I mean… I know I'm not going to actively spy on then… But…"

"They'll identify any changeling in disguise, Discord." Celestia shook her head. "Just because they don't have horns, it doesn't mean that they don't control their own kind of magic."

"And that is one of the things you're not going in there to spy on." Luna added and Celestia sighed.

"Yeah…" Chrysalis' sarcasm practically dripped off her teeth. "The 'not really magical kind of magic'."

The others ignored her and her salty mood while Celestia explained further. "Griffon magic is very similar to pegasus magic, Discord. Such as The Lion's spoken magic and there are some anecdotical evidence that they have learned some sort of enchanting magic, that may be a form of the same magic. They are clearly doing something we don't understand because Luna has trouble peering into their dreams. Be very careful with what you say or do in there, though. They can become distrustful very easily and they are naturally reclusive. Your job is to help us understand their position. The most important reason you are going is that they opened up to you. Don't ruin that… It's a friendship. Understand?"

"Yes ma'am!" He saluted and caused the princesses to giggle. They had been at this for hours, talking to him about all they knew of these griffons and griffons in general. She was proud at Discord's ability to maintain his focus and his interest in the griffons. Nothing like a little attention to make anyone agreeable.

"Good. Now, look at this one." Celestia showed him another photograph. A nice view of a stone mansion with a beautiful flowered garden by its side and surrounded by black stone walls. The focus of the photograph was a pair of griffons. The male was big, with a powerful and fit body covered in a blackish-brown fur and whose head was covered in white feathers topped by a discreet golden diadem with a single ruby.

"He is Gilad. Also known as Lord Ironfeathers. And also, as The Lion. With him is his mate, Lady Gwendolen." Almost as big as he was, her figure was more elegant, even if she still looked physically powerful and her coat was a snowy white with black dots in her hindlegs. Her head was white too, but her feathers followed a distinctive pattern with black and white that made her look like she wore a black cowl over her head. Discord looked agreeably at her. She had black on her beak, on her forelegs and wings in a way that made it seem like she wore a cape or something.

"She looks… Odd." He twisted his head upside down, staring at the photograph. "In a good way."

"She is a dimwitted cute face The Lion keeps next to him. Probably has some 'desirable talent'…" Chrysalis sneered. "That and the griffons like her… for some reason."

"Griffons say she is the most beautiful griffoness in existence. But you know how these things go." Celestia rolled her eyes. "The photograph may not do her much justice. Anyway, she and Gilad have a single son, whose we know very little about thanks to their isolationist nature. No more than that he is their son and a few irrelevant details."

"We also know little of the city nowadays, other than that it is the mustering point for The Lion's army and other than that it is a city as any other. A very militarized city, and the fortress at the top is yet unconquered with nigh impregnable defenses that the griffons boast as being the only fortress of the old world where an alicorn never set hoof."

"Please…" Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "If it was up to me, I would go there and tap dance all over the place just because of that."

"And that is why you don't have any friends." The white princess stared at her, but then turned back to Discord again. "This is not a problem, Discord. I don't care if I can't ever 'tap-dance' on Griffinsky. I will gladly stay out of there for all eternity if that means we can coexist in peace and harmony. That is why I want you to be open about your motivations to be there. They have to trust you and through you, see that they can trust me."

"You are being naïve, Celestia." The queen was rather bored. "Whatever Discord says, they'll assume that he is there to spy for you."

"I can't do anything about it, Chrysalis. All I can do is be honest with them. In time this will earn their respect and their trust. And that is why, Discord, you will tell them that you are there because I asked you to cultivate a friendship with them. You will be our mutual friend, a bridge between us."

"I understand, Celestia. I'll do my best."

"I know you will." She smiled confidently at him. It was a smile Discord didn't see often and felt some of pride at earning it. "Now. There is one last thing you must know. The griffons there don't speak Common Equestrian, or even the modern Griffonian. They speak an archaic form of the modern language and I don't have a clue why. One historian that visited Griffindel years ago mentioned that they see this language as sacred and not to be taught to others. I imagine it has something to do with the spoken magic that Gilad can use. Do you think this will be a problem?"

"Not at all!" He waved dismissively. "I can deal with that."

"You should also know that our Justiciars, over the years, have found them to be very resistant to opening up to cultural exchange propositions. Two years ago, Twilight introduced a law project with the idea of facilitating and promoting language tutoring to the children as soon as they were old enough. Preferably as they learned the local languages of their cultures."

"That failed in Snow Mountains hold." Celestia's head shook. "Their 'Loremasters', what passes for teachers in there treated it as an attack on their sovereignty. If anything, this should let you understand how important their language is to them. Well, there were other things, but they are not entirely relevant now and it might be better if you learned them by yourself. Simply understand that they put a lot of pride in their culture."

"So…" the queen grinned maliciously. "Did your old friend Grigor use the same language?"

"Chrysalis! Don't mention that in public!" She looked around, but no one seemed to be paying attention, much less have heard.

"We can't say for sure it was the same language." Luna said reservedly. "To be entirely honest, the griffons could be lying about The Lion's use of that kind of magic and it could be an entirely different language. That would be a good reason for them to keep it so secret. But it was real in the past. And what worries Celestia so much is that if The Lion knows the language enough to teach himself and the other griffons, something very significant from that period must have survived."

"The Lion has exquisitely played a very hidden game. He definitively knew what he was doing and hid it from us, while using whatever it is that he has to lure other griffons in." Celestia admonished them with her serious tone.

"So, it may be the case that there is nothing to fear and that prick is bluffing?"

"I don't think that this is a bluff, Chrysalis." Celestia sounded very worried. "He clearly has something that is convincing griffons to join him. And I doubt it's simply their advocacy for hunting rights and vapid griffon pride."

"This whole thing sounds tricky." Discord frowned at the scribbles he called notes. "Maybe it would be a better idea to let Twilight get to him and sort this out."

Then it was Celestia who frowned. "Twilight and Cadance will want to present whatever they find at the Hall of Friendship, and now that you've told them about Naminé they'll tell The Lion things that are going to turn the whole affair on its head, and then he'll feel completely justified in pressing for separation and will cause a war."

He crossed his arms and pouted. "Maybe you should disclose the truth, then. Since you're the only one who knows what caused this mess to begin with."

"I think I deserve to know… Since it seems that I have suffered because of it." Chrysalis put her hoof on her chest, all self-pity. "How about a bet? If Twilight can figure out that Luna is the goddess from the legend, she must apologize to all of Equestria."

"How dare you, Chrysalis?" Luna managed the most accusatory and at the same time blank stare at the queen that present company had ever seen. "With Cadance that didn't interest you in the least."

"Then I was talking to a confused filly Luna." The queen grinned nonchalantly at her. "Now I am talking to the mares themselves. Besides… I'm your friend…"

"How cute." Discord grinned. "What difference would that make?"

"Stop it. You will not bother Luna with this, Chysalis." Celestia chastised both in a low voice. "The Goddess never existed outside the ponies' imaginations and 'the truth' belongs in oblivion. It will cause a rupture and all that has been done to fix it, by ponies much braver than you, will be undone. None of you were there to help. None of you went through what I and Luna suffered because of that, much less understand the situation at the time."

"I better go…" Discord said after a few seconds of angry uncomfortable silence. "This conversation isn't fun."

Then he vanished with a snap of his fingers, a flash and a bang.

Left behind the three mares remained in silence until Chrysalis rubbed the side of the table with her hooves. "I apologize… I suppose I'm in enough trouble because of my Praetorians…"

One of Luna's eyebrows rose. "What are you up to?"

"I'm trying to say I admit I was wrong in bringing up again that issue about the goddess!" She growled. "It doesn't matter anymore. Even if there was a cure, we changed so much we're something completely different."

"Don't worry, Chrysalis. Luna is an adult. She can deal with it. After breakfast we should see your children, though." Celestia grinned smugly. "Since she is trying to shirk her duties in Canterlot, Luna has volunteered to probe their minds in their sleep."

"Well, this is more important than another speech about The Lion…" Luna defended herself vehemently.

"I'm not worried, Celestia." Chrysalis said calmly. "What is worrying me is that Chocolate Velvet and Thorax still haven't showed up yet."

"Oh. They're probably talking about stallion things." She giggled.

The Magic of Friendship flew as fast as her magical engines would take her through a cloudy sky. The Captain had put her on a downwards flight towards a cluster of white cottony clouds high above the still green corn fields that surround the small city of Hay Bale. Non-pegasus ponies hid in the underdeck and the pegasus crewponies tied themselves to the main mast. Her sails were furled, and the wind whizzed past its solid crystalized metal structure.

Behind her a Royal Guard frigate dived and her own magical engines roared trying to keep up with the princess' faster and more maneuverable airship. Its own golden-clad pegasus crewponies had tied themselves to it too and held on to their posts against the wind and they looked right in place next to the airship's golden hull.

One of them, a dark gray pegasus with an off-white mane his helmet turned into a crest held on to a tight rope with one leg while the other pointed onward and his voice rose above the wind. "Keep us above them and line'er up to shoot! We're not going home without our quarry and they must slow down eventually! Be ready to heave guards! The Mare will pay a sumptuous dinner to the crew that captures the little princesses!"

The 'Little Princess'' airship gained some distance on them, but they would be well under the ballistae's effective range when they would be forced to slow their descent. So very typical for a non-military captain to allow his vessel to be outmaneuvered like that. Not too long now and Frigate Captain Wild Tango would have the honor of informing Her Royal Highness that her wayward princesses were captured. But not before he gave himself a stern lecturing to them. The strong wind made his smile larger than it should be, and then some when he realized he could ask for another assignment after this was done. A place in the frontlines when the war finally started would be nice to accumulate glory and heaps of gold.

In the Princess' ship crewponies shouted directions to their captain and made sure, once more, that everything was tied down for the impending maneuver. In the middle of all that the two adult alicorn princesses aboard the airship held to the outer side of the railing and screamed when the airship trespassed a small cloud flying so fast Twilight was sure she would become a hole in the ground when it was all over.

"I hate you, Rainbow Dash!" The other princess shrieked holding on to the railing with her legs as though her life depended on it. It probably did, anyways and the small icicles that grabbed at her didn't even bother her at that point.

Both of them wore their enchanted barding and Cadance's robes flailed about in the wind as though it not only had a life of its own but was also intent on dragging her along in the wind.

The pegasus in question was next to them and had an enormous grin on her face while her mane also flailed madly, and she shouted at them over the roaring wind. "Almost there!"

Rainbow too wore her very special magical barding. A very light white steel barding with leggings that let her hooves exposed, each with a pistol strapped to it. Her element of Loyalty jewel adjusted neatly to her gorjet. Her wings were also exposed, and sharp articulated folding blades covered their leading edges, with the cutting edges folded in while not in use.

"We're going to need a new bearer for Loyalty if this doesn't work!" Twilight screamed back at her.

"It's cool!" Rainbow reassured her over the wind. "We train for this all the time in the Wonderbolts!"

"We are not Wonderbolts!" They shrieked again and Twilight was going to tell her how much she hated that plan but her pegasus friend shoved them from the inner side of the railing.

"Now! Go!" She grinned more than she should while the two let go and screamed when they were caught in the wind and the cloud they had just reached. A large and wet cloud big enough to engulf the entire airship when it rushed past the cloud.

Twilight held on to Cadance's leg and they tumbled about inside the cloud. Soon the pursuing airship roared past them and the turbulence it caused made their flight even more erratic. Though calling it flight was a particularly bad misnomer. In reality they fell through the cloud in the most ungainly way possible. And they also screamed all the way until they popped out of the cloud's underside. Cadance twisted and twirled and regained control of her flight, hovering just under the cloud with scared bulging eyes and some frost stuck to her mane.

"Whew…" She said to herself, looking around to regain her bearings.

Twilight plummeted past her with a shrill screech and in a mess of flailing robes, wings and legs. At the sight her sister in law screamed and fired up her horn, grabbing Twilight by the rim of her robe and hanging the other princess in the air by her belly.

"Are you okay, Twilight?!"

"I am going to murder Rainbow Dash…" She shed a few frost sheets when she wiggled for a while.

The pegasus in question screamed past them with wings folded back and a spinning flourish towards the ground.

"What are the odds that she'll die because of that?" Twilight grumbled.

"Well, it worked!" The other giggled. "The Royal Guard's airship went on after your airship. I just hope that Starlight can keep up."

"She'll be fine. She's very powerful." Twilight freed herself and adjusted her robes. "We should hurry though."

"Princesses?" The two alicorns squealed and turned to see a confused cyan and salmon pegasus mare hovering next to them. She wore a cute blue vest with golden rimming and a cloud and sun broch. "Are you hurt? Did you fall from the airships? That was some dangerous flying!"

"Oh!" Twilight recognized the vest. "You're with the Hay Bale weather team!"

"Yes!" The mare beamed. "Can I help?"

"Oh! Ah…" Twilight chuckled nervously at the pegasus. "We're fine!"

Cadance chuckled too. "Don't mind us."

"But you're princesses…" The pegasus frowned. "And you're wearing some serious barding."

The two stared at each other's robes and shinny barding with their colors. Cadance also had her metallic crystal bow on her back, and her quiver in the place of a saddlebag. Both looked ready for a fight rather than a friendly visit to a small rural town. Not to mention Twilight's sword and magical staff.

"Yes. But… Uh…" Cadance's eyes shifted away from the mare.

"We're here to inspect the… Bar." Twilight quickly concluded while the three mares hovered next to each other.

"Really?" The pegasus perked up her ears. "That's a thing princesses do"?

"Totally." Cadance added with all the certainty she could muster and nodded and grinned as friendly as she could. "So, could you point us to 'The Barn'?"

"Oh! It's that big building with the white roof!" She pointed with a hoof at a large barn smack in the middle of the small town. There really was no other place it could be, but at least the pony believed them. They were new in town, after all.

"Thanks!" Twilight grinned. "Uh… Keep up the good work!"

"Thank you, princess! Do you need anything else?"

"No. We're set." Cadance grinned at her a little too much. "Come on, Twilight. Sunburst is waiting for us."

They left the pony spouting another polite thing at them and waving while they flapped their wings slowly to lose altitude and moved towards the structure and the waiting pegasus by the entrance.

"Well, that was awkward." Twilight grunted.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come with our barding and weapons? They draw a lot of attention."

"No, I think it was a good idea to bring them. We're likely to meet some sort of opposition and it would be very unlikely that we could have walked in here without drawing attention anyways. I bet we're going to end up fighting our way back to the airship and having them will be a huge help. Besides, Shining wouldn't ever let us go without them."

"You're probably right." Cadance acquiesced with a sigh and they kept silent until they landed next to the establishment's large double red doors.

"What took you guys so long? Down is the easiest way!" Rainbow complained and pointed at the ground with a hoof.

"Calm down, Rainbow." Twilight gestured patience at her. "These ponies can't suspect we're doing anything out of the ordinary here. If anypony asks, tell them you're escorting us while we visit the Barn."

"Lame."

"Well, that is the story we're going with!"

The Barn was a good name for an actual barn with red-painted wood walls and white roof that was converted into a bar and restaurant. It was a cozy place with a 'farm atmosphere' that would be right at home at Ponyville. It even had a few decorative hay bales and farming equipment here and there.

While they walked inside, it occurred to Twilight that Hay Bale was an important place as it produced much of the food that fed the south part of Equestria Heartland. It was a small town, but it supported large farms and a small army of farmers. She smiled at the thought of how important these ponies were.

Not to mention that Twilight`s curiosity was piqued to the extreme. Most of the things that decorated the place were different from the typical farming equipment she`d usually see at Applejack`s farm. Her head moved in every which way and her eyes absorbed every single detail in distilled inquisitiveness.

Rainbow Dash tried to look intimidating with flared wings and a mean expression she was used to seeing bad ponies wear in the books she used to read.

Cadance wondered if she could buy something to eat that wasn't related to apples.

Regardless, almost every single pair of eyes turned to them and Twilight smiled awkwardly when she noticed. Cadance waved for a second, a little more in control. "Don't mind us. We're just looking for a friend."

Rainbow said nothing and simply tried to look menacing.

Thankfully it didn't take long for ponies to go back to minding their own businesses after understanding the princesses were busy with something and wanted to be left on their own. And whatever Rainbow Dash was doing. Regardless, the princesses appreciated it: much nicer and easier to deal with the simpler folk than the nobility on their own towns and on Canterlot.

Thus, the trio walked calmly with muffled hoofsteps on the straw flooring as conversations resumed around them. The bartender, a fit white and red earth pony mare with a green handkerchief around her neck simply stared at them and nodded politely when they stared back. Soon, they found Sunburst, Miss Goodread and an elderly female griffon with green soft eyes and shades of gray in her fur and feathers and also wearing a pair of small reading glasses. The three sat at a corner table, near the back of the barn.

"Ah! Princesses! Rainbow Dash!" The unicorn stallion waved and happily beckoned them over to their table with some glasses of orange juice and prench fries. The two princesses didn't take long to sit themselves with them when they noticed that Sunburst looked awkwardly at them. "Why are you dressed like that? I mean… I know the situation is weird, but this… Uh…"

Rainbow Dash sitting behind them and staring menacingly at the ponies nearby didn't help the awkwardness.

"Shinning Armor insisted…" Cadance sat by the table next to Twilight who looked just as much annoyed as her sister in law was, but they stared each at the other and softened. "He was probably right that the likelihood of us being attacked by the Royal Guard or by local guards until the end of the day is pretty high."

"Oh my…" The griffon lady seemed worried. "Are you in danger right now?"

"Not right now." Twilight tried to calm her. "Our airship is leading our pursuers astray while we talk and will return for us later in the day. We have until then to talk."

"Well then. I brought you something but left it at the cottage Mister Sunburst has rented for us. We need to talk first." The griffon nodded professionally and kept a reserved tone in their corner of The Barn. "Princesses, Mister Sunburst and Miss Goodread have told me that you have uncovered evidence of one Emperor Grigor. Who supposedly ruled the Holy Griffon Empire before King Grover unified and griffon kingdoms into the present Griffon Kingdom. Is that right?"

"Correct!" Twilight grinned at the promise this meeting showed right off the gate.

"Unfortunately, I must tell you that he is believed to be a mythological figure." She said and Twilight deflated. Cadance simply frowned and the others listened. "He and the Griffon Patriarchs were a myth King Grover had to fight in order to unify the griffons and their different cultures after he set out to form the unified kingdom. This isn't typically discussed outside griffon historians as it is a very shameful moment of our history and he is simply not known by mainstream historians. Not only the fact that we had some very distasteful beliefs that needed to be suppressed, but also that there was a separatist movement that argued King Grover betrayed an ideal our race was supposed to follow. They used this Grigor as a set piece of what a griffon ought to be as a descendant of the Griffon Patriarchs."

"But the letter…" Twilight whined.

"They told me about it." Gerdie nodded softly. "Letters can be forged, princess. Even if they are very old. They are also a common form of fiction from that time. Writers would mention that they went someplace, or that they saw something that was a common idea. Or that they talked to someone important or even made up conversations between important people. Sometimes, they'd make up characters that traveled and talked to important creatures."

"That is… Ugh!" The princess grumbled. "Why would somepony do this? Or… A griffon? Didn't they care about historicity or facts? Where they just making things up?"

"Well, it wasn't history, per se…" Goodread offered. "They were likely aware they were reading a story when they read those. Not real facts. That would explain why it is so hard to find anything about this Emperor Grigor."

"I understand!" Twilight argued back. "Like our legends. Fictional stories that have a moral directive. Like the whole Hearthwarming Tale. But we believed that was true! So, maybe the griffons did something similar?"

"Hearthwarming is taught all over the world as the real story, Princess. This story of Emperor Grigor wasn't, and today it is nigh unknown." Gerdie shrugged. "They probably thought that this gave some sort of credence to their stories. Or maybe it was something usual and that writers simply liked doing. There are books about Princesses Celestia and Luna that follow this idea. Today, griffons wouldn't even like these stories, because we put our very real and savage past behind us. Even if it wasn't as bad as anything Grigor might have done, he would still be a reminder of a blackened past we hate. Our reality does inform our tales and myths, after all."

"No. No, that can't be right." Cadance shook her head. "The Changeling Queen claimed to have lived as his contemporary. And Princess Celestia is upset we are delving into this whole story. For a different reason, but she supposedly interacted with him too."

"Yes!" Twilight's ears perked up. "Not to mention that Discord didn't exactly say it, but he confirmed that something happened at his time. And, also, Princess Luna confirmed that they helped the griffons change history!"

Those words had a strange effect on the old griffon lady. She frowned and the life seemed to drain from her eyes. Her paws trembled a little as she grabbed the side of the table. "My goodness… Princesses, are you sure?"

They stared at each other before Twilight nodded at the griffon and worried for her. "Miss Gerdie… Are you feeling unwell?"

Sunburst served her a glass of orange juice from the bottle in their table and she took a sip, then smiled thankfully. "If the story about Emperor Grigor is true. Just to be sure. What did the Changeling Queen tell you about him?"

"That he was a real jerk?" Cadance offered with some curiosity. "And that he united the small griffon kingdoms."

"She told us that some of the griffons hated him, and they asked Princess Celestia for help. Also, about this speaking magic of the griffons. She spoke of the whole thing as though it was very real."

"Hum…" The little griffon lady hesitated quietly thumping her fingers on the border of the table. "We can't talk about this here. If Emperor Grigor was real… Well… Hum… There are some very scary things you should know."

"It's alright, Miss Gerdie." Cadance reassured her and touched her paw with a hoof, alog with a friendly smile. "I think we've been dealing with scary things ever since we set out on our little adventure."

"Still…" The griffon didn't seem very convinced. "I'd prefer if we talked about it in private, and I must show you what I brought. If your letter is real, then the ones I brought might be too. And worse… The whole myth, not only the existence of Emperor Grigor."

The ponies exchanged looks before Sunburst rose his hoof. "Okay. I rented a small house for a couple of days with the excuse that I was here researching the soil. It should give us the privacy we need. It`s detached from the town, but close enough and Miss Gerdie left her things there."

A flash and a bang announced Discord's arrival. It was a snowfield with barely a distinctive characteristic in all directions, but the visibility was awful anyways. A strong blizzard castigated the place and everywhere the only colors were shades of white sounding as though the world was about to end in the roaring wind. He blinked and magicked his map into existence, staring at it with some confusion while it flayed in his hands.

"Huh… This map seems to be somewhat inaccurate." He shrugged. "Oh well…

He teleported again, but didn`t seem to have moved more than a few meters. And again, with similar results. After a few attempts he still found himself in a similar place. In fact, he couldn't see much of a difference, but that could be due to the terrain being pretty much the same and surrounded by the same snowstorm.

He turned around. "What?"

He could see the spot where his feet had disturbed the snow a few paces behind. "This is unexpected."

He focused on his own magic and forced his way through space again several times only to end up in the same place he was before. Finally, he put his hands on his hip and frowned at no one in particular. "What is going on?"

With a renewed effort he inhaled deeply, clenched his fists and strained his magic, disappearing in a flash with a bang and reappearing in the same place he already was. He crossed his arms. "Okay. Something is most definitively not right here!"

After grumbling and frowning some more, he put his hand on his face and sighed. A little calmer, his eyes squinted, and his nostrils flared while he sniffed the air. Chaos was weird in that place. The problem wasn't his ability to teleport but magic in the surrounding region. For some reason he was failing to 'connect' with it in order to teleport away. He taped his chin… Celestia did mention Luna was having some trouble peering into their dreams. Maybe those things were related?

"Naughty griffons have been doing something weird…" The question was how they were even doing it. Maybe this whole griffon magic thing was real, but that didn't really surprise him. Everything was magical in the world. The question was understanding it. Though figuring out how to circumvent it first was more important right at the moment. And he had no idea how to do it.

"Well, this is embarrassing." He snapped his fingers a few times with colorful sparks, testing his ability to perform magic and it seemed to work, he simply couldn't teleport and confirmed the problem was the area, not him.

He calmed himself some more and listened. His ears moved to one side and the other. Being around ponies he was used to listening to some sort of chiming melody when magic was active in the area, but this time he heard a voice. A ghostly and penetrating, disconcerting whisper that stung his ears and rose every hair in his back. It quite literally made him wobble like gelatin.

The wind bit deeper and colder and he wrapped himself in his arms (several loops). "Oooooh boy…"

In an instant it was over, and the normal cold wind of the blizzard remained.

It took him a few seconds to reorient himself and close his jaw back in place. Celestia had once cast a spell over the Elements of Harmony to keep him from messing with them and it was one of the uncanniest things he had ever felt in present times. This thing he had just experienced came to a close second.

Shaking the weirdness out of him, he focused again. He felt the magic whirling past him in a fast-moving mist of raw magical energy forged into a teleportation disruption spell that literally made decoupling space and time impossible. It was exceptionally complex in nature and it sparked with power like lightning crisscrossing an endless cloud.

And there was that whisper. Like a breeze hidden under the howl of the wind, like the citric aftertaste that follows a cupful of Solar Sangreal from the Royal Winery. Eerily echoing the words that gave form to the spell in a language completely alien to Discord.

It was disconcerting, but at least he knew what it was. Unfortunately, he was no closer than he was before to probing into the spell and allow himself through.

He grumbled again. He really didn't want to walk, or something, but it seemed as though he didn't have a choice. So, his shoulders slumped, and he sighed profoundly with a groan and set on to walk.

The chilly wind bothered him somewhat with its howling. It reminded him of some of the monsters that used to live in the old world. Well, timberwolves were known to howl too and they still existed. He supposed the problem really was boredom. But he kept from focusing on the spell that surrounded him. It made him uncomfortable.

The problem was that he wasn't very used to walking and it was a bit of a bore. Or a lot, really. He couldn't understand how normal creatures simply walked! Even with the blizzard, all that featureless white all around him was draining him of his will to simply move a step at a time.

It then took him some time, but he realized something important. His boredom was part of the spell that permeated the area. It was very subtle and masterfully woven into the spell. Now that was a defensive spell Discord could respect. He had better reevaluate his opinions on these griffons. They were clearly more than brutes, he realized, the more he thought about them. And this one, capable of casting such a spell… Discord wanted to meet them.

That was what the ponies called 'strategic level spell' and they required unreasonable focus and power, not to mention knowledge of the workings of the Chaos in Magic. The only ponies Discord knew that could do something of the sort by themselves would be Celestia, Luna and Cadance. Queen Chrysalis, too. Twilight and her friends if they had the time and the Elements of Harmony. Or the Crystal Heart.

Thinking of that dampened his excitement. Memories from long ago surfaced and the expressions of the ponies he had hurt around those things floated before him. Would he ever rid himself of that shame? He doubted.

He shouldn't allow that to drag him down, though. He did his best. He changed. He was helping now. Celestia was happy with him. The ponies liked him, and he had an opportunity to help deal with the big bad problem of the hour.

Finally, he giggled with a happy expression, more and more interested in meeting these griffons. That put an extra giddiness in his walk and silenced the spell that surrounded him.

His mind didn't take long before it began to wander as he walked, though. He thought of Twilight and Cadance and their quest. He hoped they wouldn't get themselves hurt in the process. Not only because of the griffons, but because of the things they were likely to discover.

Things were kind of crazy back when.

Not that things weren't always crazy in this world of theirs… But they were crazy in a bad way.

Regardless, he walked and after a few hours of hiking in the snow he was glad his magic at least still worked to keep him from sinking in the cold white, and also fortunately, the storm subsided. He could even see a tree line marking the boundaries of a forest and, to the other side, the gentle slope of a snow covered mountain. Very few vegetation besides the trees, but Celestia's sun still shined above in-between the clouds. He stopped for a second and let its warm light caress his face.

Ponies didn`t pay that thing enough respect. They didn't understand it and the one that did prefer that it remained just a big ball of fire in the sky.

His eyes closed softly. It was only a few seconds when he noticed another living thing approaching. It was a young griffon with a dark-gray head and light-gray body covered in a light metallic armor staring dumbly at Discord as he came out of the tree line. He had one of those muskets on his back, with an added pointy thing under its… Point. Attached to the woodwork of the weapon. His blue eyes conveyed his shock and his raised forepaw made it almost comical.

"The Lord of Chaos!" He blurted not long before another griffon approached staring at him and then at Discord.

The other was bigger and older, wearing a similar armored vest, but his was heavier and adorned with animal pelts and feathers. On his back he had a big sword and a bow with a richly adorned quiver filled with green feathered arrows. Discord hadn't seen one such weapon in a long time. Both griffons were very similar-looking, except for the elder's eyes that were steel-gray and somehow seemed… Less naïve. Discord had trouble explaining to himself the feeling those eyes conveyed other than they simply seemed to have seen much more.

Finally, there was also a little griffon child, no more than six years old, all steely gray with blue eyes and wearing a light gray coat over her tiny form. She also carried on her back a pair of slain white bunnies with red marks where the arrows had fatally wounded them, tied with a leather strap around her neck. She stared at him with huge and curious eyes while she and the other young let the other take the lead, approaching Discord respectfully until he nodded and spoke. "Lord of Chaos."

"Uh. Hello." It was awkward. Discord wasn't used to this sort of treatment, and not only that, but they showed their respect very differently from what the ponies usually did. And that is not even considering he had no idea why these griffons even would show him respect at all. Most ponies simply acknowledged he had been given a title, he was powerful, but they treated him as much as an equal as they did to any other pony that didn't have both wings and horn.

That said, he waved at the trio of griffons. Where they hunters, he wondered.

"Is there any way we can be of assistance?" The older one asked, taking the front. While the younger one resigned to sitting on the snow and watching, the little one already walked around him.

Before Discord replied to the older griffon, the child spoke cheerfully to him, but he didn't understand what she said. It took Discord more time than he'd like to admit noticing that the older griffons spoke to him in Common Equestrian despite Celestia having told him that they spoke a different language in that region. He figured they imagined he wouldn't understand their language.

Regardless, the little one either didn't know the Common Equestrian or expected 'The Lord of Chaos' to know her language. He rose a finger and then snapped his fingers materializing a small golden badge with an upwards pointing arrow he then pinned to his chest.

The small one giggled at him and he spoke after clearing his throat. "So… Can you understand me?"

Both males stared at him inquisitively but the small one approached further and giggled again, speaking in her own language he now understood. "Yes!"

Discord feared that the older griffon would chastise the cub for approaching without permission, or something of the sort, but instead he simply let her stand in front of him. "Did you come here to see The Lion? Everyone wanted to see him!"

He rested his hands on his knees and lowered himself in front of the small griffon. "Why, yes. I would like to meet with him. Do you know where he is?"

"He's staying in our town!" She chirped excitedly! "Brokenhorn! He's staying in our Jarl's mansion!"

"Hum. What is a 'Jarl'?"

"It roughly translates to 'count'. And is it's equivalent to this title in Equestria Heartland." The young male said helpfully while the older simply let them talk.

For some reason Discord imagined the older griffon would be stricter, but he seemed to be fine with his younger talking in his place. It's probably because the griffon seemed so intimidating at first glance. Interesting.

"Ah. I see. Though… I get the feeling that I'm disrupting something."

Then the older griffon finally spoke, calmly. "An archlich has been spotted nearby and seems to be causing a number of monsters to wander off from the Frozen North. My liege has come to slay the creature and we set out to track it."

"Archlich, huh?" Discord pulled at his beard. Maybe it is the cause for the weird magic in the area. Though, liches weren't typically that powerful. "Maybe I can help! And also, it would get me to meet The Lion! I need to talk to him!"

"I'm sure Lord Gilad would meet you anytime, Lord of Chaos." The old griffon added.

"Great! So… Uh… Do you always hunt for undead monsters with your daughter?" Discord's eyebrow rose inquisitively.

"I'm not scared of some old dead thing!" She frowned and pouted.

The old griffon shrugged. "We were not going to fight it. We were tasked with tracking the creature. And we are on our way back. We'll take you to Brokenhorn if you so desire."

"Yes. That would be nice. I take you didn't find it?"

"We didn't." The griffon shook his head. "These things typically don't move around much, but this one is wandering quite a lot. Maybe it's not exactly an archlich but something that isn't undead. We'll know when we find it. But for now, we'll take you to the town, if that is acceptable."

"That would be great!" Discord grinned at the griffons. At least things were going in the right direction, even if not really in the way he expected.

The prolonged breakfast went well after Chrysalis had apologized to them and Luna didn't seem to have taken her comment with any weight. They actually talked frivolously without a hint of the weight of the situation they found themselves in with the whole mess that Cadance and Twilight were creating, or the one Chrysalis had conjured up with her Paraetorians.

Celestia knew very well that Luna and Chrysalis would find a good cornerstone for a friendship with each other. She just didn't expect the two to already have connected to the point they would fight and them make up right back up. She wondered if either realized that. She knew that Luna's patience and their previous conversations about how Chrysalis would behave must have been helpful, but the current crisis brought all of them together faster than she expected.

Or rather current crises… She thought with her ears pulled back for a second.

If only Twilight and Cadance were with them. She sighed, looking at nothing in particular while the two mares next to her talked about something related to changelings and mint-flavored pastries.

She was happy the two struck out a nice conversation while they enjoyed their breakfast, but she felt somewhat left by the wayside and wished Chocolate Velvet was there. Whatever kept him and Thorax from the breakfast for so long, anyways?

She didn't exactly worry, but she had the feeling that they were up to something, and maybe she was a bit on edge with the current situation, but she'd prefer if they didn't do anything they might regret later.

Almost as if on cue one of the service doors opened slightly and a big brown alicorn pony sneaked in. Maybe sneaked wasn't the best word to describe him tiphoofing his way towards the stage where a group of musician ponies played something in the background, while hiding behind a large fan of colorful feathers some filly in the Bordello probably used for her dancing presentations.

It wasn't even big enough to hide him!

Chrysalis and Luna ceased their conversation with the first wondering aloud. "What is he doing?"

"I think he wants to ask for a song." Luna stared.

"But why is he trying to hide with the brightest and most attention-grabbing accessory he could find?" The queen asked again.

"He's being silly." Celestia rested her jaw on her hoof with her knee on the table, watching with mild amusement and a soft smile while the big brown alicorn wriggled by the wall towards his goal.

He spoke as inconspicuously as someone in his position could to one of the musicians, a short aqua-marine crystal pony mare with a bright pink mane that played a guitar and listened curiously. They had a hushed and short conversation, and then he wriggled all the way back to the same door he had entered from.

"They are going to do something stupid, aren't they?" The queen frowned as though she was already tired of their antics that hadn't even started yet.

"Be patient, Chrysalis." Celestia smiled at the queen and she relented a bit. "Whatever they are planning, it is certainly meant as a heartfelt gesture."

"You must be very easy to please, Celestia." Chrysalis spat back. "In fact, I think that you are."

"I know them, Chrysalis. They wouldn't do something to hurt us, and if it happened, it would certainly be unintentional."

The queen became thoughtful. It seemed that her simple reasoning gave her something to think about and had potentially saved them some embarrassment in the following moments. Luna simply stared at the door with her ears perked up at attention.

It didn't take long before Chocolate Velvet appeared at the main door, all spruced up with a tight dark-blue outfit and a bordeaux tie, like a gentlestallion. His mane and tail were impeccable, and he wore the two-piece golden horn band she had ordered for him. He even had the attention to brush his coat and shine it properly. He didn't wear the mane fishnet that she liked, though.

Regardless, he trotted up to their table with a huge smile and cleared his throat. She had to contain a giggle.

"My ladies, but especially Queen Chrysalis… Me and King Thorax have decided that something special was in order to celebrate!"

"I will skewer him with a fork if he shames me." Chrysalis threatened half-heartedly.

Chocolate stopped for a second and stared at her. Once again Celestia felt the urge to contain her giggling before he spoke again, resuming his excitement. "I can guarantee you that you are going to be flattered by a special song from my original world. A song that has delivered joy to many broken hearts and united couples in eternal love without count!"

He then turned with his smile to the ensemble of musician ponies, cueing them to start a cheery melody for a few seconds and rushed to the door while a pair of crystal pony maids of the Bordello opened the double main doors and Thorax jumped inside flaring his wings and smiling while he wore a black coat with a stiped white and black shirt underneath.

Chocolate Velvet was quite proud. It was the best possible impersonation of a certain singer he could think of.

They stood side to side and danced stepping in rhythm with the song, swaying from one side to the other doing their best performance of the song Thorax's new knight-prince-friend had taught him.

He was even glad Chocolate joined him. They had little time to rehearse but the more Chocolate had told him about the song, the more he was convinced of its magical powers to woo the mares. And best of all, it seemed to be working! Chrysalis couldn't keep a small smile from replacing her perpetual frown while she listened to him sing along and dance with his alicorn friend to the simple, yet cheery melody and lyrics that spoke of their mutual understanding of the rules of love, and promised commitment and endless love and comprehension.

Next to her Celestia softly swayed from one side to the other, listening with a cute enamored smile, but Luna held a passive expression on the brink of bursting with laugher while Chocolate shamelessly dragged Thorax into singing to them and simultaneously introduced Equestria to the song his people used to prank each other.

Well, she liked the song too, which was a good thing because it was certain to be stuck in her head for days to come.

The walk through the small town let Twilight think in silence for a while and with each step a tense uneasiness grew in the back of her mind. She hadn't liked at all Miss Gerdie's reaction to learning that this Grigor guy might've been real and for some reason that unnerved Twilight more than learning the things Chrysalis had told her. Maybe they just seemed more real now?

A fleeting exchange of stares with Cadance told her that her sister-in-law definitively felt the same and that made Twilight even more nervous. There had to be something really bad in this whole affair for this nice old griffon lady to feel so upset at the idea that Emperor Grigor was real.

Like… Come on. Even if The Lion is dabbling in bad things related to him, he's been dead for millennia.

Meanwhile Rainbow Dash flew overhead with a way too serious expression, looking every which way. Twilight knew that her pegasus instincts would alert her to anything out of the ordinary, and at least an ambush or anything of the sort would be very unlikely.

Well, it was already unlikely in the place they were, but anyways. This tension was getting to her head.

It was a brisk and silent walk through the small town to a secluded lodge by the fringe of the town, near the closest corn fields. Rustic wood walls, fixed glass windows and a single chimney in a thatch roof which clear color contrasted with the dark water-besmirched wood. It was old and looked like it hadn't received much in the sense of maintenance in the outside, but it looked sturdy enough. They took little time to enter and Rainbow Dash quickly locked the door behind them. It seemed everypony had been infected by the griffon's insecurity and the pegasus remained by the door, looking out the window. At least she was taking the bodyguard thing seriously.

Inside the lodge seemed to be in a much better state, with a nice and comfy siting room. The floor and walls gave a rustic atmosphere with its dark-gray wood planks and the thatch roof above. It had a simple dining table, a sofa, a chair, an empty stand and a couple of doors. A single window let in the day light and a fireplace by the chair was clean and flanked by a neatly stack of firewood. The floor had a simple brown rug, but they didn't take long admiring the interior design of the small house.

It wasn't a very 'pony' little house, but it was usable by a group of ponies and griffon looking to have a conversation in secrecy. It was probably used by whoever would keep watch over the fields by night. Or something… It made sense in Twilight's head.

Miss Gerdie drew their attention sitting at the table when she produced a pair of briefcases from under the furniture, one large and the other not so much. She laid the things on the table and as soon as all had settled, she opened one and the other, then she turned both to them.

Twilight's eyes almost bulged out of her head so wide she opened them while Cadance let out a very soft but impressed 'wow'. Sunburst adjusted his glasses, staring with his jaw hanging and Miss Goodread's blinked several times before she believed what she was seeing. Rainbow Dash stared from afar and failed to see what was so impressive.

"Well…" The griffon lady grinned proudly, forgetting the graveness of the situation. "I'm glad you appreciate it!"

The smaller one contained a letter, similar to Emperor Grigor's letter, also preserved in crystal and apparently of the same material. The other case however, held a large rectangular and dark gray stone tablet with rounded edges and rustic wedge-shaped drawings of griffons, buildings and mountains framed by similar symbols in sequence, like writing all around its edges. The deep grooves made for shapes that survived time even if the tablet's face seemed to be slowly smoothing itself out. Under the sunlight the material shone softly, and it allowed for clear identification of its markings, despite the damage time have caused.

A pony like Maud Pie might have been able to correctly identify the substance, but to the princesses and Sunburst it seemed to be a slab of diorite.

The thing exuded magic too. A strange magic, different from the harmonious pony magic or the pungent changeling magic the princesses and pegasus felt from the old scroll in the Changeling Rock. It was aggressive and it intimidated them for an instant before they remembered they were staring at a lifeless block of stone. It brought images of the sprawling deserts of eastern Griffonia. Twilight could practically taste the dry sand.

"These belong to the personal collection of the curator for the Grand Museum of Griffon History in Thunderpeak. I only managed to acquire them because I dropped a few names, explained the situation, and he is also my dear dad." Gerdie's grin grew even bigger. "The letter was directed at Emperor Grigor, but a certain detail has caused us to identify it as fictional, or simply false. The stone tablet is a fragment supposedly recovered from a lost city of great importance in the myth of Emperor Grigor."

"This should be preserved with time magic! It can't be in somepony's private collection!" Twilight squawked a bit too loudly, gawking over the tablet. Not that she didn't care for the letter, but that tablet was outstandingly special! "It belongs in a museum!"

Cadance agreed wholeheartedly, but before she could voice her opinion both princesses realized that these artifacts could never have been put in a museum. They were not supposed to exist. Not any more than their letter or the story Chrysalis had told them. She instead stared back at the griffon with her hooves on the table. "How did these reach your father? Our letter I found inside a vault for dangerous magical items!"

"Our family has a very peculiar tradition, Princess." Showing them the things and talking about them seemed to make the griffon calmer. Even proud. "My great-great-grandparents claimed that we are the descendants of the Imperial Loremasters."

"Oooh. Fancy title." Sunburst grinned too.

"How come your family isn't cool like that, Twilight?" Rainbow joked with a giggle, aggravating the princess and Cadance rolled her eyes with a smile and a dismissive huff that caused Twilight to giggle too.

"At least you both know your own family."

"Indeed, it is fancy." The griffon granted. "And if the whole story of Emperor Grigor is truer than we presently believe, I am inclined to credit them because if these are real, then they truly are something amazing! Now, do you happen to know something of griffons in pony lands at the time?"

"Yes!" Twilight and Cadance jumped excitedly.

The second let the first proceed. "Our letter from the emperor to King Sombra mentioned that a griffon army had been dispatched to Equestria because he thought that the sun going out of control was an act of war on the part of Equestria!"

She rubbed her chin for a second. "Under the command of one Blacktallon! Odd… Now that I think of it, it is not a griffon name."

Cadance nodded silently and the griffon stared at them for an instant with a grin. "That is because his name was actually 'Gorham Blacktallon'. It is very typical, even today, for griffons to take epithets like that, as in Chancelor Gail Silkfeathers or Lord Gilad Ironfeathers. Most importantly, the name checks out with the letter that I have."

She raised a clawed finger professorially. "Even more important! We believed the letter to be nonhistorical because of the lack of evidence of a griffon invasion in Equestria's mainland. After all, no griffon kingdom of the time would have the numbers to launch an overseas invasion. But, considering Emperor Grigor did exist and did form his empire…"

The two princesses gasped, and the griffon went on, delighted at their reaction. "You see, what I have here is a letter written by Gorham Blacktallon to Emperor Grigor during the occupation of Everfree, and it mentions Celestia."

The two gasped again. Only louder.

When they were done with their song and dance both stallions bowed to their audience, particularly to their mares. The restaurant applauded excitedly, patrons, workers and the musicians too, yet in a dignified way and the three mares clapped their hooves together with happy grins.

When the two finally sat next to them, Celestia held Velvet's hooves and her eyes sparkled with childish glee. "I loved this! You should have sung it to us sooner!"

He put a hoof on his puffed-up chest. "I wanted to save it for a special moment. I knew you would prefer to share it with our friends rather than selfishly keep it for ourselves. I figured Thorax could use the help."

"More important than our marriage?" She grinned mischievously but he didn't let that hamper him.

"Ah, our marriage was _more_ special."

"Don't push your luck, Casanova…" Luna grinned mischievously at him too. "Not to mention that if I remember correctly, you were too speechless to sing in our honeymoon."

"Well, I am just glad you both liked it!" He declared with more of his typical excitement.

On the other side of the table Chrysalis and Thorax held their hooves together and she stared at him with big dreamy eyes that almost scared them. Thorax, at least seemed to take it seriously with the way she talked. "Do you mean it? Everything?"

He stared back at her with the most serious and honest-to-heart expression the ponies could imagine in a changeling face, holding her hooves between his like he was afraid she might slip away. "Yes! I do!"

Celestia giggled looking back at Chocolate and her sister. "It worked! Great job, Velvet!"

While he chuckled rather childishly and rubbed the back of his neck, and Luna hoofed at his shoulder with a grin, one of the crystal pony maids approached their side of the table with a concerned expression, not stopping until she was close to the sun princess and spoke reservedly. Ponies never seemed to do this when the news were good.

"Princess. I am terribly sorry to disturb your highnesses, but Lieutenant Crucible Wings requests to see you immediately. Says it is urgent!"

"I will speak to him." She told the mare and then turned to her sister and consort. "You stay here with those two."

"Don't worry, Celestia…" The queen looked back and rolled her eyes. "I am not going to jump on Thorax in the middle of the restaurant."

The conversation resumed after Celestia giggled and left the restaurant to talk with her lieutenant and Luna scooted over closer to Chocolate with a smile full of ulterior motives and they talked for a while, leaving the queen and king to themselves. It didn't take long, though and the crystal pony mare returned looking for the other princess and their consort.

Chrysalis and Thorax didn't care, but the two retreated outside to the corridor where Celestia stood next to Crucible Wings and she didn't look very happy. A couple of ponies came walking down the corridor, but once they saw the princesses and that their conversations seemed to be serious, they turned back.

Celestia spoke in a normal, but restrained voice for the place they were in. "A group of griffons assaulted Baltimare's freight teleporter and hijacked the facility to teleport in an airship from an unlicensed teleporter. They injured the staff and left with their airship soon after Flying Snake left with his team and Ponyville's militia."

Luna was choked on her words. Her mouth moved a few times before she managed to form a coherent sentence. "This is outrageous! Baltimare! This can't be a coincidence! They are obviously trying to get involved in Twilight's and Cadance's quest! This alone could cost The Lion his appointment as a Majesty. They are interfering with… Oh my goodness. Should they even know?"

"It seems secrets grow harder to keep by the day in Equestria…" The older Sister kept calm despite Luna's outburst.

Chocolate Velvet frowned as the seriousness of the situation became obvious. "There was no way that you going to Ponyville, and that whole racket would remain secret for long, Celestia."

"Yes. It seems it was too much to ask." She nodded. "Especially with the Lion playing this game of his. Griffons probably ran to tell him as soon as their pony friends noticed something seemed odd. Ponyville's situation distracted us. Now Twilight and Cadance are on the run. I don't know how much he knows, but any amount is too much."

"We have an airship closely chasing Princess Twilight's airship as we speak. A Royal Guard frigate from the Number 2 Canterlotian Garrison. Still a way from the ambush location near Baltimare. Most important, the griffon airship didn't chase our mercenary friend. It left in an interception course towards Princess Twilight's airship, and it's flying fast."

"Where exactly is Twilight's airship?" Luna asked.

"It's flying around the region of Hay Bale, trying to lose the pursuing ship without much luck for hours."

Hearing that, Celestia frowned and shook her head, then staring at them with her ears pulled back. "No. That doesn't sound right. Twilight's airship is much faster than any Royal Guard frigate and if she wanted to escape, she would simply fly away, or they would be boarded already. She is in the city, not the airship and they are wasting their time chasing a decoy they can't seem to board already!"

"Who is the buffoon commanding the frigate?" Luna's voice and pulled back ears betrayed her irritation.

The Sisters were getting angry. Someone was going to regret it soon and Chocolate decided it was best to remain quiet for now.

"It is one…" Crucible struggled with his memory for a while. "Tango. Frigate Captain Wild Tango."

"I don't recognize the name." Celestia stared at Luna inquisitively, now with her ears perked up.

"You don't know him because he is an idiot." Luna looked like she had just eaten something spoiled. "He is one of those jerks that joined the Guard because they thought it would make them more attractive to the mares. He is in a never-ending power trip where he thinks that his position makes him the next King Sombra… And that mares find that attractive."

Celestia took note of Luna's fuming glare and flared wings. "Have you recently met him in a dream, or something?"

"I wish it had been a dream." Luna fumed some more. "A couple of years ago, in the Grand Galloping Gala he approached me and assumed that a mare of my standing would appreciate unsolicited touching and dirty-talking! That is why he is commanding a frigate from a garrison in the middle of nowhere! He is lucky he is not there merely to clean the latrines! He must have managed to save some of his reputation after I came short of having him expelled from the Guard."

To say that Luna was angry was an understatement as far as Chocolate had come to know The Sisters. "Do you want me to punch him?"

"Please do!" She raised he muzzle with a deep offended scowl. "It would greatly please me!"

Try as she might, given the seriousness of the situation, Celestia just couldn't keep from giggling before she recovered control of her herself and Luna returned to a calmer temper.

"We must deal with these griffons!" The blue one concluded. "We should depart immediately, Celestia."

"No." The other shook her head. "We're trying to bridge a gap between us. We can't get officially involved with whatever they are trying to do. Especially if Twilight and Cadance eventually manage to show some of the things they are looking for."

Luna's eyebrow rose. "I do believe that deploying an airship through violent hijacking of a teleporter facility could be considered an act of war…"

"I don't know what is going on in Gilad's head, Luna… But if we are not careful with our response, we risk escalation." Celestia's head shook softly. "He doesn't know we just sent Discord to talk to him and if we act too brashly, he'll assume that Discord is a decoy and part of an aggressive reaction to his own action. Not to mention the problems we are facing with the money laundering involving Ponyville's militia, Chrysalis' children and Twilight and Cadance on the loose. The timing couldn't have been worse."

Luna's hoof rubbed her chin and she stared thoughtfully. "Hum… I suppose that is why you are ruling Equestria and I am not… Fine. What is your plan, then?"

In a display of something that wasn't a very common sight, Celestia sighed and her ears fell to the sides of her head when she looked at Chocolate Velvet. She didn't have to say a word. He knew what she was going to ask and memories of Ponyville flooded his head.

He didn't have to say a word either. He didn't even need to know if she knew about the letter and he could see the apprehension in her posture. The concerned eyes. The slightly sagging wings. The hanging ears. He knew what she was going to ask, and he knew she feared asking it.

Maybe it was a silly thing, but she knew it was important to him. Well, he knew what was more important to him. "What do you need me to do, Celestia?"

She took a step towards him lifting her wings just a bit, still with that look in her eyes. "We need to talk. Alone. There are a few secrets you must be made privy to for this to work."

"So, uh…" Crucible was a little confused and nodded to the door. "I should go?"

"For now, yes." Luna joined them, following after Celestia's lead, even if she didn't entirely know where it went. "Tell Chrysalis and Thorax that we will rejoin them soon."

"We must act quickly this time." Celestia told the armor-clad pony. "While Chocolate is away on his mission, Luna and I will gain him some time 'investigating' the situation in Baltimare. Chrysalis is to remain here with Thorax and her Praetorians. Ask her nicely, she is in aa good mood. It is also of the utmost importance that Discord's mission isn't disturbed, therefore The Lion must think that Chocolate Velvet will be going to Haybale seeking to apprehend Twilight and Cadance and that we still haven't reacted to his airship."

Celestia thought for a second, frowning softly. "Relay to all Royal Guard outposts that the griffon airship is not to be disturbed for now unless they pose a threat."

Luna nodded her agreement and, finally Celestia took a second before she spoke again to the pegasus. "There are some complicated things we must do and talk about. Give us a couple of hours and then look for us in our quarters. You will go with us to Baltimare after Chocolate has departed."

There was only one thing one could answer when Celestia spoke to you that way. "Yes, your highness."


	16. The Past Set in Parchment and Stone

Discord never knew that he could fly so fast. Obviously, he could in retrospect, but the thing was that he rarely had to actually fly anywhere until his ability to teleport was cut short. Not to mention that his magic, in short terms cheated its way around the typical rules that applied to spells used by most creatures. It really shouldn't have surprised him so much that he could keep up.

In all honesty he was relieved he could keep up with them because he wouldn't be able to bear the shame of the great 'Lord of Chaos' being forced to walk and then forcing his griffon company to walk too.

The two males flew fast and a fair bit above the treetops and to his sides. The little one rode on her brother's back and seemed to enjoy it quite a lot, holding on to his clothing and their father now carried the bunnies they hunted. Discord would have liked to help, but he had the feeling that they wouldn't accept it, anyway.

It was a bit of a journey, though hardly a boring one. The mountains not only made for diverse and beautiful scenery, but it was different from the sprawling plains of Equestria Heartland. The endless snow didn't seem so overbearing after the blizzard had cleared, and he could see the area from above. Beyond the sea of white, the snow gave way to dark soil and green grass, crisscrossed by fast and shallow streams of clear water, all framed by the seemingly ubiquitous mountains in the distance, under the overcast sky whose clouds the persistent sun managed to pierce here and there.

It was a different beauty from the typical verdant and bountiful pony lands, and even of the Crystal Empire and Yakyakstan, but it was a beauty of its own and it certainly was also bountiful on its own way, else Discord couldn't imagine how the griffons would be able to thrive. And so close to the Frozen North, without the Crystal Heart's magic to protect them. These griffons had said it: monsters came south from it. He had to wonder why is it that they would prefer to live alone, under these conditions.

He would have a lot of time to figure this out as the travel to Brokenhorn ought to take a while and he'd have a lot of thinking time since these griffons didn't seem particularly chatty while they flew. And then he missed his friends… Ponies had no problem chatting while they traveled, but the conclusion he had reached about these griffons is that they were like that because they lived a difficult and dangerous life. They were rugged. It made sense.

The Royal Guard air frigate under the command of Frigate Captain Wild Tango resolutely kept its chase after the Princess' airship in the sky above and around the uncultivated lands near the small town of Haybale. Insistently on a repetitive dance, just barely lining for a shot, being outmaneuvered, left behind and led on a chase only to come just short of hitting them with the fifth consecutive shot of their grappling ballistae.

It came to the point Royal Guards onboard began questioning the sanity of their captain. He still stood on his hind legs, holding on to the rope tied to the main mast while the ship turned, in another futile attempt to outmaneuver the princess' airship.

Just. A little. More!

"Keep her steady! We'll catch'em yet!" His maniacal grin didn't do wonders to their mood either.

One of his pegasus crewponies, particularly his Second in Command, a light gray and light blue big specimen of a pegasus walked to him with a less than professional expression of sheer frustration and firm steps despite the slight banking while the airship maneuvered. "Captain, we've been chasing them for hours."

"Yes! We are Royal Guards! We shall succeed!"

Pure silent anger flashed on the pegasus' gray eyes. His stoic voice let no indication of such a thing, though. "Captain… If the princesses were on the airship, they wouldn't keep flying around as though they wanted us to chase then and not look for the princesses in the town."

"What are you saying?" Wild Tango stared at him with big surprised eyes. "That they are in the city and not in the airship?"

"Yes!" The pegasus guard nodded with a hopeful grin.

"That's good thinking commander! But that is what they want you to think! In all naval combat… Aerial combat… In all aerial naval combat, one must keep several steps ahead of the opponent!" He tapped his helmeted head twice. "Pay attention and you'll soon have your own sloop to command!"

Before the pony could respond a golden flash drew all attentions to the mast of the ship. It was Prince-Consort Chocolate Velvet wearing his golden Royal Guard barding complete with his commanding rank insignia on the chest, Equestria's Sun and Moon combined. His brown mane turned to a long decorative crest thanks to his helmet and his tail bundled in a similar fashion. On his back he carried a longsword and, on his chest the standard issue wheellock pistol of the guard.

"Turn this ship around, captain! The princesses are on the town of Haybale!" He cried, pointing towards the stern with his wings flared in urgency.

The pegasus sighed instead. "You see the problem with this country? Our leadership is blind to the most obvious of swindles."

"Wow… Luna wasn't joking." The prince blinked twice.

The captain though grinned widely. "Her highness spoke of me?"

"Yes! She personally requested that I delivered a message directly to you." His armored hoof forcefully connected with the captain's muzzle and that was the last thing the pegasus saw.

The guard standing next to them looked at his unconscious superior, and then at the alicorn. "Oh no… Our captain… I suppose your highness is the commanding officer of the vessel now."

"You're acting captain now." He pointed at the guard and nopony complained, so Chocolate Velvet made a spinning gesture with his hoof. "Get the helm to turn us around. The princesses are in Haybale. I need to talk to you guys too, the situation is a lot more complicated than it seems. Please, summon the crew once the course is fixed."

Back in the cottage by the corn fields Cadance talked to their new griffon acquaintance while Twilight frowned at the crystal-encased letter. "I feel like we should have brought the letter I found… Only just so you could have a look at it. But Shining Armor was driving me crazy with his worrying and we did agree that we could be attacked eventually."

The old griffon lady simply nodded sympathetically. "It seems like a dangerous situation, Princess. It is best that you took all the precautions you could afford."

Twilight grunted her frustration, causing the others to turn to her. "This is odd. It's remarkably similar, but also distinct from the one you found, Cadance."

Her sister-in-law paid attention while Twilight hoofed curiously at the crystal casing, pointing at the writing and frowned some more, and her ears pulled back. "I'm almost sure it's in the same language family, but it's not close enough that I can read any of it, save for a few words… The writing certainly looks similar, though."

"Well, if you can't read it, I probably couldn't either." Cadance shrugged. "Miss Gerdie?"

"I assume that you are talking about the older version of the usually spoken Griffonese. Not that it is… Usually spoken. You understand. Well, this detail does speak of legitimacy, but that is from the standpoint of our traditional history." She shrugged too. "I guess it makes sense since Queen Chrysalis corroborated it's version of facts. It would seem that Grigor and his Empire used different languages between themselves and with foreign dignitaries."

"So, does that mean we're on the right track?" Twilight sounded hopeful.

"Oh! Definitively!" The griffon chirped.

"Why though?" Twilight frowned again. "I mean… I have heard of 'battle languages' that were used by warring factions that shared a common mother language, but that didn't seem to be the case."

"I have a suspicion. It's because they would deem this language of theirs some sort of secret." Cadance said. "Miss Gerdie, is this the same language they speak in Snow Mountains?"

"Indeed, it is, princess." Gerdie nodded with a hint of respect in her voice. "This, on this letter is what we have called High Griffonese… Or rather, has been called since that time if one is to believe the Loremasters in Snow Mountains. It is the language spoken in Snow Mountains Hold too, and this is one of the reasons we thought the letter was likely a forgery, since it mentions fictional individuals and it is a contemporary language, albeit a reclusive and poorly studied one. Not to mention that the only ones who believe this story might be true live there. Then they could have magically aged the paper. A scholar might identify it as a forgery on this alone, but not an uninitiated."

"I don't get it!" Twilight frowned again and held the edge of the table with her hooves. "How can this language be spoken somewhere today and not alert Princess Celestia that something is wrong? I understand that nopony would know the relevance, but she should."

"She doesn't know…" She mused uncertainly by herself after a few seconds. "Or at least not with enough certainty."

"Even if she knows, she may not be able to do anything about it." Cadance looked around at the others. "She may not know enough, or maybe she thinks that it's not relevant. Who knows? She's probably lying about this too."

Meanwhile Sunburst and Twilight's librarian, Miss Goodread returned from the kitchen bringing a few snacks. Grilled corn, corn salad, some sweet made with corn and cheese wrapped in corn leaves Twilight didn't know the name of, corn cookies. Corn juice. And _corndogs_ for the griffon! It all seemed very tasty! Except the corndogs, obviously, but for some reason Twilight didn't really understand, Cadance looked like she wanted to die. What was wrong with her? She's been acting so weird since they arrived and now that.

Both of them refocused on the conversation, however.

"They do speak Common Equestrian, though." Cadance came short of gagging. From the memories from her visit, or from the food that they were just served. Twilight wasn't sure. "They spoke to me."

"Wait. You've been there? I thought that no outsiders were allowed."

"A traveling merchant came to the Crystal Empire to do business and he was scared by what he saw there. He told to me that those griffons didn't follow livestock regulations. Since I was curious, I decided to go to Griffindell, their capital and see what it was all about. But I may be exaggerating a little when I say that I've been there. Let's say that their eating habits didn't agree with my stomach of a pregnant mare… I didn't even get to see The Lion, just a rude lieutenant and I couldn't get past the entrance to the city where they have the pigsties, cow fencings and a butchery. It all smelled so awfully of blood." Cadance put out her tongue. "They won't like it, but if you insist and remind them that you are indeed a Princess, they'll let you in since they can't stop you anyways. The point is that I couldn't confirm anything so it never made it into a real investigation."

"I suppose it was around the time Princess Celestia decided that they should be given their space since tensions were getting a bit high." Twilight concluded. "Regulations about these things never came out right and the whole thing is a big gray zone. That must be why they get away with it."

"Well, they will speak Common Equestrian if they receive a visitor that can't speak their High Griffonese, or the common version. They are… Finicky, though." The griffon sighed.

"You know a lot about them, don't ya?" Rainbow squinted at her.

"I was going to become a Loremaster. But dad got a better paying job and we moved out. Their tales fascinated me though, and I just kept poking around. After all, I'm one of the few griffons outside that can speak their language. They hope I'll return… But there is also hope that they'll wise up, you know…"

"This is strange." Miss Goodread adjusted her glasses. "Most languages change over time and this whole thing happened thousands of years ago. And there is this bizarre notion that they refuse to teach this thing to others."

"They are protecting it." Sunburst offered a hoof. "It is the language The Lion speaks his spells with! And that is why they protect it and only teach it to their own."

"How do you know?" Cadance looked at him, as did the others.

"Some time ago I met a griffoness from Snow Mountains." Before continuing he blushed, and his eyes turned downward. What followed was an awkward silence with ponies and griffon staring at him.

"Oh my…" Cadance gasped teasingly. "Does Starlight know that?"

"What? No! I was dating her before I reconnected with Starlight!" He shrieked. "Not to mention she's dating Trixie now, not me!"

"Dating? Gotta tell us the rest now!" Rainbow teased with her smug grin.

"Fine!" He grunted and blushed even deeper. "I was working at a crystal mining company, in the Magical Properties department and I met this nice griffon girl in the dinner in front of our offices and we dated a few times. She was so cute and timid, barely speaking everyone's language. Well, she needed some special crystals for her project, and I managed to get her some, but then she vanished."

"Did you get laid, at least?" Rainbow asked and Twilight yelled at her.

"It sounds as though she used you, Sunburst." Cadance concluded. "I'm sorry. I hate it when this sort of thing happens to nice ponies such as yourself."

"Yeah." He frowned. "Well, all that was just to mention that she once said that their language was important, and it was meant only for griffons because it had magical powers or something. I was interested, but never got her to explain further."

"You know, you're not very lucky." Rainbow told him. "I mean, the griffon chick only wanted you because of some crystals and when you found Starlight Glimmer again, she decided to date Trixie."

"Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I noticed! And by the way, Starlight and I were just friends!"

"Yeah. It's called the Friendzone."

"Why don't you go back to looking out the window?" Twilight growled at her.

"Gee. Fine. I'm just saying."

"Do you remember her name?" Twilight turned back to Sunburst while the pegasus left the table.

"Gal." He said simply. "I think it was a nickname, but I'm not sure. All she really ever told me was that she needed these crystals and how important this language of theirs was when I found her writing a letter and asked about it."

"So… This language of theirs is special. For sure." Cadance concluded with curiosity. "I guess it makes sense and confirms what Chrysalis told us."

"Can you read the letter, Miss Gerdie?" She finally asked the griffon.

"Yes, I can Princess. I'll read it to you." She took it from the briefcase and carefully laid it on the table, breathing in and taking some time to get her on-the-fly translation correct as well as adjusting her reading glasses.

She finally cleared her throat.

_'__Glory to Your Imperial Majesty, Grigor The First of His Name and Holy Emperor of Griffonia under the Harpy's Blessings;_

_I send this letter with the intention of informing Your Majesty of the arrival of your army to the lands previously held by the Equestrian Republic. We have suffered minimal losses due to disease or weather and your strong have once again proven to be of finer stock._

_We have met no resistance on our way other than the great distance we have covered. What we have found however is disheartening. The great capital is no more. It lies in ruins no fit to shelter more than wild animals. The mighty Mage's Guild is reduced to a pitying of recruits of lesser importance from the noble families which run the city of Everfree and the Archmage is a decrepit old unicorn with a whitening beard longer than his gumption__and one of the worse attires I have ever laid my eyes upon._

_The population is as passive as cattle waiting for instructions and I cannot imagine we should have any trouble dealing with them. This lot will surely benefit from your enlightened rule. Perhaps sometime soon they might even be prepared to receive one or two of the Harpy's Loremasters._

_More importantly, we have been received with lowered heads and submissive stares from the ruling families and they seem to understand their new situation. For some reason I cannot comprehend they seem comfortable with it. Additionally, there seems to be a disagreement between the Archmage and the city's rulers. I will inquire further into the details as the opportunity presents itself as I feel this plays a part in their acceptance._

_Head among them is Magnus Brightmane, patriarch of the Brightmane family followed by his daughter and now Queen of Everfree, Sunshine Brightmane, and her two brothers, thus named Maximus and Quake. As it so happened by the time of our arrival, the young unicorn mare had just been appointed sovereign queen of the city under strange circumstances._

_The second family of importance would be the Bluebloods and I will eat my cape if I have before met such an unscrupulous and untrustworthy lot in my life. Patriarch Bullion Blueblood and his daughter, Platinum Blueblood seem to have the Brightmanes as very close allies in keeping the city under their hooves as masters of the law enforcement forces while the former hold the city's coffers. They too cooperate with our forces._

_The daughter had taken responsibility in explaining the situation regarding the heavens as the Archmage hesitated, but, as Your Majesty can attest to, the heavens have been put under control again. It just so happened that the situation seemed to have fixed itself in a most convenient and unorthodox fashion soon after our arrival._

_I cannot grasp the details of this unfathomable pony devilry to save my life, but it seems that at the brink of complete failure of whatever magic that governs the heavens one with competence to sustain it has manifested. Such as though The Lord of Chaos himself makes fun of us it happens to be the elder daughter of a lowly baker that has taken control over the sky, the sun and the moon. A freakish abomination of a malnourished and disheveled, overly tall pony with a horned head and a pair of wings on her back._

_The ponies seem to revere the young mare however, and the Archmage insisted that she ought to be elevated to Queen of Everfree and de jure Queen of Equestria, ordained to unify it, despite the actual queen. The relevance and validity of such claim remains to be verified and as per my most cautious judgement it is best that Sunshine Brightmane remains the Queen of Everfree under Your Grace for now._

_I shall explain._

_The winged unicorn child, so called Sol-Estia by the populace, and Sunny Days by her close acquaintances (I cannot be inconvenienced to understand) is uneducated, but of perspicacious mind and has assured me that no longer will the sun ravage the land with a great level of certainty. I do not like her. The Archmage seeks to educate her along with her young sister and I feel that she is dangerous. She hides something and seems to understand things that I, a grown and educated noble do not. Was she not pivotal to the maintenance of the magic of the heavens I would have this one executed before the end of the day. It bears mentioning, however that the child wants nothing to do with being crowned queen._

_Regardless, the Archmage has secured for the sisters, both said to be responsible for the heavens, the title of Priestesses to protect them from the city's leadership, according to some old belief. However, the ignorant masses seem intent on calling them Princesses. At the mere recollection I feel the urge to pluck my head feathers. I cannot stand the stench of grass these equines exude, and I have not been in this place for a week and already urge to burn it to the ground along with this inane nonsense that seems to sprout out of every corner in this cursed city._

_There are a couple of families in direct vassalage to the Brightmanes and Bluebloods, but they are hardly worthy of mention with the exception of House Flameheart. Under Matriarch Cinnamon Flameheart, they are the survivors of the Fourth Battlehorn Legion of the Republic. They do not appear battle-ready, save for an irrisory force that can hardly protect their own mansion, but I have scarce information to report on them for the moment other than that their Matriarch seems to harbor an unquenchable hatred for her lieges and an unbreakable loyalty for the Archmage and for his new students._

_I did not expect to see a pony, even a battle-hardened veteran to be able to harbor and keep under control such wrath. I respect her. And I also I shall explore the situation to the best interests of Your Majesty as I learn more of the "Princesses" and the Battlehorn survivors._

_Thus, I conclude my report. I shall remain and defend Your interests in this cursed land of equines. May I serve your Majesty to the fullest of my abilities under the Harpy's blessings._

_Forever Your Loyal Servant,_

_Captain General Gorham Blacktallon'_

The ponies stared at each other while the griffoness rose her eyes from the letter. There was a lot to unpack in that letter but Twilight's mind was stuck on the ridiculous absurdity that ponies might still call them princesses on the present time simply because the less educated ponies of the past may have not understood the difference between 'Priestess' and 'Princess'.

"What… The… What?" She blurted in a half-daze.

"I honestly expected worse." The other princess casually and not at all impressed munched on a grilled corn cob. "Some murders or weird secrets."

"Well, this corroborates that the griffons sent an army to Equestria." Goodread offered.

"Hum… What's a priestess?" Sunburst asked.

"The chosen representative of a deity in the realm of the mortals." Gerdie lifted a finger. "It's a concept you're likely to run across if you study certain legends. Such as some diamond dog legends about the Mother and this story of Emperor Grigor. Did you notice that the General mentioned 'The Harpy'?"

"Yes!" Cadance's ears perked as much as the others paid attention. "Who was The Harpy?"

"The Harpy was believed to be the mother of all griffons. Literally." She gestured with both paws to emphasize. "And it seems that she had seven favorite 'sons', the Griffon Patriarchs, one of which was Emperor Grigor, to whom the Lion is descendant. Supposedly. Outside of Snow Mountains everyone just thinks this is some made up thing so that he has some sort of legitimacy."

"Didn't Chrysalis say that they were the first griffons?" Rainbow blinked.

"It's a small detail." Twilight waved it away with a hoof. "It is possible that she didn't know, or that the legend changed over time."

"I believe the most important pieces of information here are that it seems that Luna and Celestia's arrival did fix the Sun, and this account also reinforces that they didn't rule from the start." Twilight pointed at the letter with a happy grin. "We're making some progress. But the problem remains we still don't know why the princess did what she did. Unfortunately, this letter didn't say anything about why the Sun started going bad. Just that Princess Celestia seems to have fixed it."

Gerdie thumped her fingers together timidly. "I'm sorry. It seems that this letter didn't help that much at all. Unfortunately, General Gorhan didn't inquire into the details. I believe, though, that you should find that sort of information back with The Lion, as this is all that I have. Maybe a travel straight to Snow Mountains is in order?"

Cadance shook her head. "Discord was adamant we should talk to a pony called Naminé in Manehattan. Before we went to Griffonia."

"That may be a waste of time, Princess." Gerdie worried. "You could lose your opportunity if Princess Celestia silences him, in order to hinder your investigation."

Twilight didn't answer right away, pondering at the suggestion. It was instead Cadance who spoke. "Miss Gerdie, would you happen to have any record about Mother Farfalla or about Night-Made-Flesh?"

"Mother Farfalla? I suppose you mean the original changeling queen? There is a mention of her in one of the stories where she is called Queen Farfalla. According to it she tried marrying one of her daughters to Emperor Grigor. But also that she might have been doing the same with other powerful leaders."

Cadance frowned. "It has just occurred to me that Chrysalis must have erased everything there was to know about Mother Farfalla as soon as she became the queen and the only reason we have the legend of Mother Farfalla is because pony oral tradition kept it alive."

"Seems to me that it would be wise to visit Snow Mountains as the Lion must have information that you are seeking. Even if from the griffons' point of view. It might provide some good insight, if you manage to reach the Lion before Princess Celestia realizes that she should." Gerdie insisted.

"Well, I agree with you, miss Gerdie. But Discord was adamant we must see an important pony in Manehattan first. Not to mention that my airship simply can't cross the ocean without resupplying, and we figured Manehattan is the best place. Not that it is going to be easy."

The old griffon lady hummed and joined her paws. "Have you considering asking The Lion for political protection against The Princess?"

Cadance's mouth opened but no words came out. Then she closed it with her ears folded down and opened it again, but still no words sounded.

"We could do that…" Twilight stared at the table. "Yes, we could… But I don't know if we could come back from it… I mean…"

"Princess Celestia would disown us…" Cadance blinked a few times. Twilight wasn't so sure, but their relationship would certainly suffer a damaging rupture.

"With all due respect, Princess…" Gerdie went on with a low voice. "You are both adults and also Princesses of Equestria. Else, I don't think you would have had the courage to start this investigation. Furthermore, why does Princess Celestia get a pass at lying and hunting you?"

"That is a good question…" Rainbow simply stared with big dumb eyes at the two. Back on the table.

"She is phenomenally powerful." Twilight said. "The whole time we were betting that we can get away with a stern talk and one or two punishments. We're assuming that she's not ill intended and that she had a good reason to do all that she did. Including lying to us."

"If that is the case, then why aren't you willing to ask for help? She should understand."

"But that would be going too far, wouldn't it?" Goodread rubbed her hooves uncomfortably. "I mean… Princess Celestia would certainly be cross with this."

"But still…" Gerdie still went on. "She is not against him becoming the king of the griffons. I really don't see why it would be so bad."

Twilight wasn't so sure. Something about him scared her and it scared Princess Celestia, so it really scared her. Not to mention that Discord told them not to go to the griffons before talking to Naminé. At the top of it all, the notion of betraying Princess Celestia like that was something she had never entertained. She owed everything she was to Princess Celestia. Cadance would certainly think the same. Perhaps even more considering she was actually adopted by Princess Celestia.

"We will keep the possibility in our minds, Miss Gerdie." Cadance said, actually. "I do feel like she could afford to be more accountable to the things that she's done when all she's ever taught me would be against it."

Oh-oh…

Twilight coughed and smiled sheepishly at the two. "Well, we can't stop now, can we? I guess we'll see where our needs take us. What else can you tell us about this Harpy, Miss Gerdie? Sounds like she was important to Emperor Grigor and his General."

"That is precisely what this stone tablet is about, Princess. It is actually a portion of a song that was engraved in the walls of a temple, in a supposedly destroyed city. It has a fascinating tale around its origin."

"How come the griffons have these things and we don't?" Cadance seemed to have slipped into quite a bad mood.

Twilight softened her expression and spoke softly. "Well… If Emperor Grigor realized that things were not going too well for him, he might have taken precautions. And that is why such things escaped Princess Celestia's and King Grover's purge."

Cadance sighed. "I'm sorry, Miss Gerdie. Please continue."

Gerdie brought the briefcase closer to her and showed it to her audience as she talked. "Supposedly, Emperor Grigor built a city for the Harpy, and she lived in this temple where this very stone tablet supposedly came from. There griffons would worship her. They would sing for her, about the great warriors and leaders of her people. It is ghastly, but they also sacrificed prisoners, slaves and valuable animals in her name."

"Why?" Sunburst gasped at the barbarity.

"Because she was 'The Harpy'. Mother of all griffons, who taught them their language, and then taught Emperor Grigor how to cast magic with it. As long as the Harpy was pleased, she would remain there and bless the griffons with this power." She pointed at the stone. "But this portion of the song speaks of when Emperor Grigor failed at culling the weak from his 'pride' and they were allowed to sap the strength of his empire. We don't have the whole song, but it seems that a class of nobles within the Empire wasn't happy with Grigor and secretly sought help from the outside to dethrone him."

"Can you imagine a world where ponies would go to… Temples. And there they would sing, dance. They would make offerings to the princesses expecting… I don't know… Gifts? Maybe preference. It's not like Princess Celestia or Luna would give us or any pony any sort of preference."

"Cadance!" Twilight didn't want to scream, but what she had heard shocked her. "What are you talking about?! Princess Celestia adopted you! She trained you! She made you what you are today! Just as she did for me. And not because we did some creepy weird thing that she liked. But because she expected us to help her make the lives of other ponies the best possible! We are very fortunate ponies! Some would call us privileged."

Cadance frowned in a way that Twilight didn't like at all and spoke a little too loud. "Excuse me? You were a unicorn born in Canterlot! Princess Celestia literally took you into her care because she thought that you have a very powerful latent magic. And I suppose she was right! Because you breezed through being admitted into one of the most difficult teaching institutions in the world. Not only that, but you became her personal student. Her protégé. Then she literally sent you on your path to become a princess with all your friends to help you! Creatures all over Equestria adore you just as much as they adore her and her sister! Don't you ever call me 'privileged' again!"

"But you are a princess too!" She shouted again, more out of surprise than anger.

"How dare you! I don't even know where I was born, or who my parents are or if I even have family alive! I slept with cold and sometimes our matron sent us to bed early because we didn't have food! When I reversed that witch's spell, I didn't even understand what was going on! I was a pegasus!" Her voice broke and she hit the table with a hoof. "Suddenly I was a freaky alicorn and the other foals were scared of me! It was a small village, nothing like Canterlot, filled with libraries and educated unicorns! They thought that I was the witch!"

"Cadance… Please…" Twilight showed her hooves defensively. "Stop! I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

"Didn't Princess Celestia raise you afterwards, Princess?" Miss Gerdie asked and Cadance nodded softly with her ears folded down.

"Yes… I can't say that it was bad, or that I wasn't loved. But she didn't let me do the same things I saw the other rich foals doing… Now I know that they were wrong… But… I don't know what I'm trying to say anymore… But it would be nice if ponies would come to me and say that they love this or that pony and asked my help. And did something nice for me…"

Twilight's eyebrow raised. "Are you saying that you'd like ponies to come to you and buy another's love from you for a gift?"

"Well, when you put it like that…" Cadance frowned and pulled her ears back. "Maybe… You help ponies with friendship problems, don't you? I know it's different, but it's my special talent, isn't it? If I wanted, I could make you fall in love with Maude's pet rock!"

And she could make her fall in love with a rag doll, but Twilight thought it would be better to let that go.

"Well, you rule the Crystal Empire." she smiled friendly instead. "Don't you? I don't."

Oh boy… Did that backfire with Cadance's angry stare. "I don't really rule anything, Twilight. It's more like I administrate it for her. Ponies only come to me when they have problems. And you don't rule anything because you don't want. I'm sure that if you laid on Mayor Mare Ponyville would turn into another empire."

The way she stared made Twilight imagine she left a lot unsaid. What the hay was she supposed to say? It was one of those occasions when a pony simply wanted to be angry. Fortunately Cadance let go too.

Twilight simply sighed.

"If this Harpy was so important and influential, then King Grover might have wanted to rid the collective griffon memory of her." Twilight taped her chin with a hoof, back in at the mater they should have been discussing. "And Princess Celestia might have been wanting to help him if she knew of how dangerous this Harpy, or her teachings were. Or, maybe if there was something in Equestria that she felt the need to hide. The whole story with the griffons might have been nothing more than a simple excuse to do whatever she wanted on her side."

"Such as her not being appointed ruler immediately after her 'arrival'?" Rainbow air quoted sarcastically. "Or that we ponies have some loose screws in our heads?"

"Yes." Twilight agreed. "Or hiding that there was a bigger problem with the sun than our History indicates. The whole griffon invasion would also ruin the lie. Let's call it what it is."

She then landed her head on the table with a loud sigh of frustration. "We still don't know why she did it. By what Discord told us, this is the actually important thing that we must learn."

"Again, I must insist that your best chance of figuring this out is visiting the Snow Mountains and talking to The Lion. He, considering the circumstances, has the best chances of having this sort of information you are looking for. Lord Discord may have been trying to protect The Sister and their lie."

"So, guys…" Rainbow began again. "What if you end up putting Prince Blueblood in a position that he can challenge Princess Celetia for the throne?"

"I'm not so sure this could happen, Rainbow." Twilight shrugged. "To be honest, I'm more worried about the griffons that the Lion seems to be garnering to his side and his disposition towards everypony. If we go on this direction, we will end in a situation where we prove that Celestia and Luna changed our History and, at the same time validate that The Lion has some legitimacy to his claims. Whatever they are… I can't say that I know that he is using these legends to bring griffons to his side. But regardless, whatever he is doing is irrelevant because Princess Celestia already declared that he can be king of the griffons."

She sighed. "What worries me is that if the Princess decided to hide this whole affair, and so did the griffons… It can't a good thing to use and garner support."

"What is with these old ponies and griffons making stuff up?" Rainbow groaned and huffed. "I mean… If it was Princess Luna that turned that pony into Mother Farfalla, then why make up this whole silly stuff with this talk of goddess and that fancy appearance. What even is a goddess? Was this Harpy a goddess? Are Luna and Celestia goddesses? This is annoying! Twilight could be a goddess for all I know, and it probably wouldn't change anything!"

"Well, there is clearly something we're not seeing in this whole affair, Rainbow." Twilight said.

She had barely mentioned her name and glasses broke. Before they even knew what was happening, there was a bright flash, and something exploded so close to Twilight she could swear it was right next to her head.

Whatever it was, the magical wards in her barding protected her from most of it and she regained her bearings in time to see the door crashing in with a large armored pony literally coming through it.

Chocolate Velvet. Damn it, Rainbow was supposed to be looking out the window!

Cadance acted much faster than she did, and her horn shot out a burst of bright magical missiles straight at him. They never hit him though, and dissipated on his barding's magical warding shield.

He opened his wings and several pellets flew from them exploding with so much smoke Twilight suddenly could barely see what happened. She was sure a gold armored pony crashed through a window and that Rainbow Dash turned the table on its side. There was so much of a mess that Twilight barely understood the bangs she heard were shots being fired. There was also screaming. A lot of screaming.

"Get out of here Twilight!" Cadance shouted at her right before she jumped over the table. "Get them out of here, Rainbow Dash!"

Twilight shrieked back at Cadance. What was she doing? "Get back here! We'll exit through the back!"

She never seemed to have heard her though and she attacked Chocolate Velvet with the tip of her bladed crystal bow straight at his shield spell and then slammed her body against him. That was stupid! She is much lighter than he is! Their armor's clanged, and rather than falling over with her (duh…), he grabbed her and spun around outside with her, outside of Twilight's view.

It was when Rainbow shoved her towards the corridor in the back. "Move it, Twilight! Cadance can take care of herself!"

One of the Royal Guards, coming out of nowhere, jumped on top of Sunburst and held him into the floor. More shots rang and she heard Miss Gerdie screaming something about the artifacts. Miss Goodread, under a chair gestured frantically at her. "Run Princess! They won't hurt us, but you must escape!"

That, and another incisive push from Rainbow convinced her. She turned but a couple of earth pony guards blocked the way and were coming at them. She reacted more than anything and teleported past them. The two stopped and turned at her, only for Rainbow Dash to smack one of them headfirst into a corner in the wall.

Twilight quickly summoned her staff and push-magicked the other backwards to crash on the table and split it on half. She was sure he would be fine, with his Royal Guard barding and all, but spent an instant looking for the others in the smoke. Her magical barding protected her from it and even granted her a level of visual clarity in the dense smoke, but the others would be completely lost and disoriented.

Then Rainbow pushed her again. "Come on Twilight!"

She gave up and flew with Rainbow, both crashing against the rear door in an explosion of splinters. Outside a pair of Royal Guards waited for them. A pegasus and a unicorn, both of which shot their pistols at them. Had Twilight not been with Rainbow, she would certainly have the agility to dodge away, but in trying to keep with Twilight the magical bullet hit her. Twilight never saw where, but it was enough to disturb her control over her flight and Rainbow went face first in the green corn plantation.

Twilight flew overhead but spun to see where her friend had fallen. "Rainbow!"

One of the guards, the pegasus flew at her too fast for her to see anything while she was looking for Rainbow and tackled her. She didn't have time to even look at the pegasus that tried to spin with her and throw her flight off to spiral out of control to the ground. That is what she deduced was the intent, but Twilight's wings were mightier, and she spun with the guard instead and threw him off. He didn't spiral to the ground though. He was a good flier and hovered a few hooves away from her.

A white and light green pegasus that looked like one of the older veterans. He didn't say anything and simply stared at her. She found it weird as he had no weapon with him. He probably left his pistol by the cottage after discharging it, but he didn't have any other weapon with him, such as a stun baton, for example. She didn't feel like drawing her own weapons and something felt off. Maybe it was the excitement of the situation.

"Are you just gonna stare intently at me?" She tried not to sound confused or intimidated. "Just because you work for Princess Celestia, it doesn't mean I'm going to give up or something."

"I'm going to let you go. Just this once because you are who you are." He told her. "If we catch you again there won't be any quarter."

Her initial reaction was to question him. Ask him why, exactly. But she saw Rainbow Dash flying up from between the green corn stalks and Cadance coming up from behind the small house they were in. Not to mention her airship coming in from over the small town.

"Fine…" She said finally. "Just. Just don't hurt our friends! Alright?"

"Wouldn't ever, Princess." He touched his chest over his barding.

Rainbow flew past her, flying backwards turned to them, staring at the two until Twilight rejoined her and Cadance was catching up. The Royal Guard pegasus allowed himself to lose altitude and withdrew.

"You okay, Twilight?"

"Yes! What about you?"

"I'm cool. That guy wasn't really trying that hard."

"He let you go too?"

Rainbow's eyebrow rose. "I don't know about that. All I know is that I left him behind"

"Curious…"

Cadance flew past them towards the slowing airship. "Come on Twilight! Rainbow! We have to go!"

The two picked up their pace and lined up with Cadance. Twilight yelled past the wind. "Did Chocolate Velvet let you escape?"

"No!" Cadance coughed out. "He… I kicked his flank."

When they finally landed on the airship the others surrounded them and Shining Armor immediately held Twilight and started inspecting her like she was a fragile work of art. "You guys okay?"

"Yes Shining! Quit fussing!" She bated his hooves away. "We have to go back and help the others!"

"No! We have to leave! Now!" Cadance tip-tapped on the floor nervously. "Princess Celestia is coming!"

The airship's Captain looked at Twilight, however.

"Fine. I think they'll be okay… Get us out of here, Captain. Straight to Manehattan, please." She pointed onward urgently. "Cadance, we've got to talk."

The citizens of Hay Bale were simple folk, so when the ponies in the unmistakable golden armor of the Princess' Royal Guard arrived in their golden airship they stopped everything and obeyed every command as though it had come from the Princess herself.

The big brown alicorn they had seen in the newspapers added to that sense of urgency.

They didn't question as it wasn't within the pony mindset to do so when they were ordered by those who had sworn to protect them that they must all hide inside The Barn and wait until they were cleared to leave. At most, a few mothers took some time fetching their foals before obeying.

Doors and windows were shut and locked. The only light came from a small set of candles or from gaps in the walls and ceiling. They heard its arrival though. It sounded like a roaring monster riding on a thunderstorm. The Barn was a sturdy building, but it rattled with whatever monstrosity was outside. Dust fell from the wood beams and small pebbles rolled around in the floor.

Most importantly, whatever magic it emanated was so strong the earth ponies could feel it as though it vibrated in their bones.

The light that filtered in darkened and the sound changed to a low rumble, like a resting beast stood right above them, breathing coarsely and filling the air with petrichor in an unsettling combination of pleasant odors and scary sounds.

"Don't worry, milady. You are safe and it will be over soon." One of the Royal Guards reassured a small filly with her parents next to him.

A large black griffon landed near the cottage by the corn field. The place looked like it had been raided by a small army. The air smelled of powder and windows were broken. The door was just barely shut. Next to him landed six of his master's soldiers: sturdy griffons wearing the black cuirass of Griffindell. They wore black capes and black and golden embroidered helmets. Most importantly. They were armed with the modern semi-automatic rifles that were sure to soon put the fear of griffons back into these grass-eaters.

He carried his own rifle on his back, together with his heavy spear with a lock of blue pony mane. He wore his own cuirass, forged larger than the ones the other griffons wore. His clear white head didn't hold a helmet, though, only his green eyes, focused on the small building.

He expected there would be some fighting once they arrived, and that disappointed him somewhat but didn't stop him from advancing and his soldiers followed suit to his sides.

He pushed the flimsy door open and it collapsed from its hinges. Looking inside he was greeted to a view of a turned table folded in half, a few chairs and a brown alicorn sitting in the middle of the room. The male alicorn they had heard about.

"I am sorry." The alicorn grinned petulantly. "But your princesses are in another cottage."

It was the most punchable grin he had seen in a while.

"You are outnumbered." The big griffon snarled.

"Yeah, I had a joke or two to throw in here, but I guess this is a tough crowd. Are we done with the formalities? Really, I'd rather we got this done because I'm dying to meet your boss and explain to him all the ways he fucked up."

He didn't know if the alicorn meant to be funny, but he didn't find it so, particularly when he didn't find his quarry and would have to return with the alicorn instead of the two princesses his master sent him to fetch. He also shifted his head at the realization that this alicorn spoke a word that wasn't very common for ponies to utter. "Take him."

Two of his soldiers rushed at the alicorn, who didn't resist, and hit him with the butt of their firearms. He collapsed on his back, and bled out of his muzzle, but infuriatingly didn't lose conscience.

"You know, you just had to ask." He grunted after his comment when one of the soldiers rifle-butted him again, this time in his stomach.

"Shut it, pony." He growled while he and his partner grabbed on his legs and dragged him along the floor.

Pony officials in charge of large cities and small villages always paid attention to whatever the nobles of Canterlot were doing. As the years passed, they noticed Princess Celestia's tendency to show up a certain amount of time after 'important events'. Not the typical city goings… No, they were supposed to deal with those and then report it up the hierarchical chain. But as soon as an unknown griffon airship turned up from nowhere via the teleporter and a group of griffons attacked the teleporter's crew, certain ponies from Baltimare knew that 'The Mare' would show up soon.

The Princess, on her side, too noticed that the city officials picked up on her methods. But in the past years, she noticed something even more peculiar that made itself evident again when she teleported with a pair of her Royal Guards into the reception of the Baltimare House of Mercy. It had been decorated with golden ribbons and a banner that read "Welcome Princess Celest". For some reason that escaped her, cities had started receiving her with banners that blatantly and seemingly intentionally missed the two last letters of her name.

It mystified and amused her to no end and since it had started on Ponyville, she suspected Twilight might have had something to do with it, but she preferred to simply let ponies do as they wanted rather than make a scene about something so trivial.

Still, it was incredibly amusing to see the Baltimare's mayor, the Lord Protector for the city and the Lord Surgeon smiling at her under the banner and in front of a sizeable three-layered cake. They even had time to procure little sweets and potato salad canapes.

Either she should start appearing in cities sooner after big events, or she should start bringing something too. Well, at least her guards would have something to eat while they waited.

"Gentleponies, I greatly appreciate it, but this is not necessary." She looked around the table and at the present ponies sheepishly staring back at her as though they are guilty of what happened. It was kind of creepy, to be honest.

The mayor, a light gray earth pony with a large and bushy darker mustache coughed into his hoof. "Princess your presence is always a pleasant one and we could not afford to have you among us and not dispense such pleasantries towards your Highness!"

She smiled pleasantly at him. Though, of that was the case, he might invite her to a nice meeting every once in a while, when there isn't something going wrong or when he didn't need support for something. But he did a good enough job that quirk was tolerable.

Fortunately, the Lord Protector coughed in the most indiscreet way possible. "Princess, we followed instructions from the Royal Guard and let the airship be. They left the city with nothing more than the problems they caused on arrival."

Next the lord Surgeon spoke. "Two ponies were injured, Princess. Given the exceptional situation the mayor asked the doctors to keep us informed and the director for the Baltimare House of Mercy decided that she would keep an eye on the situation personally. One of the ponies is an Intern at EQMagical and her horn was broken. She's supposed to recover in a few months but is being kept sedated. The director is with her right now."

The princess waited for him to go on and the Lord Protector spoke instead. "The other injured pony is the Director for the teleporter… Miss Top Brass. According to her the griffons were simply intent on teleporting in their airship and left as soon as it had arrived."

"Is it possible that I speak to her?"

"Absolutely, Princess." The Lord Surgeon nodded. "She was admitted for observation and already received a visit from her husband and foal."

"The population is scared, Princess." The mayor spoke again. "They never expected anything like that when the teleporters were first built!"

"The teleporters aren't to blame, Mister Key. And neither are your city's administration or security. Much less are EQMagical or its employees." She held a sigh. Politicians… "Those griffons are. And as such, I would like to speak to the witness. Despite your welcoming atmosphere with this reception I would prefer not to dally. This is important."

The mayor nodded again. "Absolutely Princess! Whatever you prefer!"

"Follow me, please, Princess." The Protector motioned with a hoof. "My ponies have their rooms isolated."

She nodded and then turned to her escort. "Wait for me here."

They both nodded at her and she followed the three ponies into one of the corridors that connected to the reception and the whole place seemed deserted. She hoped the city's officials didn't disrupt the hospital's service just because of her visit. She didn't even announce she would be arriving soon, and they made this whole fuss about it. At the same time, the population wasn't part of it. That meant they were scared. Someone was going to pay for that mess.

Nonetheless, she followed them through the corridors and doors. The Lord Surgeon was the one that seemed to know the way around the building.

That hospital was an old institution, about as old as the city itself and it grew with time. In fact, it seemed that each time Celestia visited one such place for whatever reason they seemed to grow bigger. It seemed to be a response to the city growing wider and taller as time passed on

It was nice to see because she typically saw this in the form of numbers and figures in reports, but as time passed, she realized that her presence had a tendency of disrupting services more than anything else, as evidenced.

Regardless, this time she needed to be present and the Baltimare Local Militia had isolated the area of the hospital to all but interested and professional ponies, so there wasn't too much of a commotion, especially since it seemed that the hospital had closed the whole wing by itself. Of course, she had hoped to see the injured ponies and reassure them they would be fine, but there was an executive officer for EQMagical in the corridor. She assumed she was because the unicorn mare with dark yellow coat and reddish-brown mane, curled up and all shiny, wore one of those 'suits' the ponies who worked with money seemed so fond of.

At least she knew they had reached the right place.

They were in a not too long corridor that the militiaponies had isolated for the special patients. It had a few sittings and some ornaments in the form of plants and some framed pictures of the city's skyline, but nothing out ordinary.

"Princess Celestia!" The mare stood and walked briskly towards the princess just as soon as she had seen the princess arrive, in a way she managed to make the militiaponies and officials uncomfortable. Celestia wondered if the mare even realized she had done that. "Do you have any idea of how much money we lost because of this whole affair?"

Every now and then Celestia missed the times when these ponies would have been more cunning. In the past they would coerce the poor injured ponies that work for them into guilting her into paying for all the money they didn't make and pretend that it was money they actually had lost. Instead of having a representative sitting on the hallway waiting impatiently for her.

She partially blamed herself for making the ponies more civilized, though. It was annoying, but better that way. A least she was direct.

"I suppose you are going to tell me anyway." She said, stopping on her way with the smaller mare before her. The militiaponies each side of the corridor simply stared at each other and at their superior who kept patiently waiting for the whole show to be over.

The mare blinked at her and didn't quite know what to say, seemingly caught completely off guard as though for some reason she expected the princess to be falling over her hooves apologizing. As thought, it was her fault. Yes, somepony in headquarters thought that it happened close enough to her request to plausibly blame her. Celestia had seen this before and every time they seemed to think that they were the first ones to come up with this brilliant plan. Again, she blamed herself.

This pony at least seemed confused enough to have legitimately believed that they were entitled to a compensation from the Royal Treasury.

Infuriatingly enough, if they were humbler and more friendly, she would have obliged. It wasn't their fault after all.

"I don't believe I know your name?" The princess smiled at the pony, who perked her ears and stumbled a little with the words.

"I'm Cash Flow, Princess. I am the local CEO for EQMagical in the city." She shuffled her hooves a little. "We are concerned about the present situation. It has caused us to lose quite a significant sum in Bits."

"I am sure it has, Miss Flow." Celestia walked around her, towards the first of the isolated rooms. "First of all, I would like to ensure your superiors that your employees, I am told by reliable ponies, are being well-treated. Additionally, I have already authorized payment of the sum related to the transfer of Mister Snake's airship, and also the amounts related to the fees associated with the changes in the schedule."

The unicorn followed her. "I am… Well. Sure you did, Princess… But…"

"Your superiors wouldn't presume to imply that I should be held responsible for the damage caused by those griffons, would they?"

"Well… I have been asked to… Hum… Nevermind, your highness." Her ears flopped.

Celestia simply nodded at her. If her little ponies had learned, then these big companies could learn it too: trying to manipulate their princesses would inevitably end poorly.

The princess excused herself with a nod and proceeded into one of the rooms where a couple of unicorn professionals cared for the young unicorn mare the princess recognized from the report as Amber Flower, the EQMagical intern that was most injured in the situation.

She stopped next to the bed, paying little mind to the nice room, carefully looking over the unicorn that was laying on her side and covered to her neck with the bedsheets. Her mane was a mess, but it looked like somepony had cleaned what blood must've clung to it. Celestia had seem broken horns before and knew what a mess those could be. Regardless, what remained of Miss Flower's horn hid under a large ointment-soggy dressing. She was sleeping soundly though, despite how painful her injure must be.

"How is she?" Celestia finally turned to and asked one of the unicorns now standing next to her. The Lord Surgeon remained by the door and the others took the hint, leaving her alone.

The doctor, a tan female looked at her patient and then at the princess. "Her horn should grow back in a year or two. She just won't be doing a lot of magic until then. In a week or so she should have recovered from the worst of it. She did have to go through surgery, but nothing our specialist isn't used too. We'll keep her sedated, though. At least for the first week. I suppose your highness wanted to talk to her?"

"Not if it can't be helped." Celestia shook her head slightly. "I rather she slept if it would be too much for her to wake up. What about the others?"

"Two of them were unharmed. They were released from the hospital and left with the city's militia. Another pony checked in with little more than bruises and was admitted for observation."

"I believe that would be Miss Top Brass?" She asked and the medical pony nodded. "I believe I will talk to her now. If you will excuse me. Please take good care of Miss Flower."

She replied to their bows with a curt nod and left for the next room where she found the mare she had mentioned. Sat on the bed and looking out the window, she seemed perfectly fine and ready to leave for home if not for some overly careful medical pony. Well, the Princess supposed it was for the better since she had hit her head and been in a rather dangerous situation.

"Excuse me?" She called from the door, rapping on it with a hoof. "Miss Top Brass?"

She started a little and then gasped at the sight of the princess. "May I come inside?"

"Yes! Please! I mean… Uh…" She fussed with the bedsheets for a while before giving up and simply stared at the princess, now standing next to her. "Can I help you, Princess?"

Celestia smiled at her. "First I would like to know if you need anything."

"No." The smaller mare shook her head, somewhat conscious of her position. "I've been treated wonderfully."

"Good. I would then like to know what you can tell me about your assailants. I understand that the Lord Protector commander of the city's militia already talked to you?"

Top Brass simply nodded, and the Princess went on. "I would like to hear from you what happened. If you are comfortable with that."

"The teleporter seemed to be malfunctioning after Mister Flying Snake's airship had been teleported, so I went up the control tower to see what was happening. Our unicorns were having trouble with the magical controls and then one of the griffons came inside and threatened us with a firearm."

Her eyes shifted down at the memory, but she looked back at the princess and resumed her account. "Next came other three griffons and one of them seemed to be in charge. One of them had a device she used to control the teleporter after she…"

The mare fiddled with her bedsheets a little more. "I don't really understand how it works, but she pushed Amber Flower's head against the terminal so hard… She bled all over the floor… And, uh… They managed to activate the control panel. I'm sorry Princess. I'm not very comfortable talking about this."

"Don't worry, Miss Brass. I understand. She will be fine in a while and I would appreciate if you could tell me more. Did the griffons say anything?"

"One of them… The one that was in charge made a speech about how… I'm not sure what the meant, but it was something about us taking things for granted. I think. Like we couldn't see when our lives were in danger anymore. He was scary." She shook her head a little. "It was the only time they spoke Common Equestrian. All the time the spoke to each other in some language I don't know. He sounded so… Serious and angry. The one that used the device on the teleporter controls. I think she enjoyed hurting Amber."

"Can you describe these griffons to me?"

"Their leader had purple fur… I don't think I've seen a lot of griffons with that color. And his head was mustard colored. She was yellow. I think… She wore a white coat. But her head was all white. She looked beautiful, but so scary."

"Do you remember anything else?" The pony shook her head timidly and the Princess nodded and smiled at her. "Very good. Now please don't concern yourself with these things. The Royal Guard is going to take care of the situation and those griffons will be dealt with. The mayor should be making an announcement regarding the event and I want you to know that I will personally ensure that all involved are dealt with as demanded by the law or protected as such."

The mare nodded thoughtfully at her and the Princess was pleased that she seemed to understand what was implied.

"With your excuse." She nodded and left the room, meeting the other ponies outside who walked with her until the very end of the corridor, a dead end with bare walls and a simple potted flowering bush for witnesses.

"We have converging descriptions of the griffons from all the witnesses, princess." The Lord Protector began as though he could read her thoughts. "Their leader was a purple and mustard male griffon of medium build. The female which interfered with the magical terminal was yellow and white, wearing a white coat. One of them stayed by the door and was of large build, dark-gray and white with green eyes. The last one was rather skinny, brown-furred with a darker head. All of them spoke with an unknown accent the witnesses described as 'sing-song-y' as was the foreign language they spoke on between themselves. Our linguist suspects it might be High Griffonese by the descriptions."

"It most certainly is." She frowned softly, not communicating her thoughts further.

"The yellow one mentioned she went to Bay County University and graduated there. That she was a researcher and that Your Highness had expelled her." He rose and eyebrow at her while the Princess' frown turned to a blank expression. And then a smile.

"I see."

Miss Cash Flow cleared her throat in that obnoxious way ponies did when they wanted attention. "EQMagical would like to prosecute these griffons, Princess. The Lord Protector has asked of us to wait until you had been informed of the details of the situation and still hadn't identified them for us because it seems to be something out of the ordinary. Our lawyer team is prepared to visit those responsible and present them with a settling accord first, though. Regardless of what legal action the Crown will take against them."

"I would prefer if your company let me deal with this situation. It is more delicate than a few Bits you didn't earn from the hours of the teleporter being out of operation and this might be a matter of national security. I can assure you that they will be held accountable for the damage they caused and will restitute your losses."

The mare gasped. "Princess! Are you protecting them? Who are they? Some important griffons?"

Celestia blinked at her a couple of times. The nerve on this little mare. "By all means, Miss Cash Flow. If your superiors are sure that your legal team can intimidate Lord Gilad Ironfeathers, otherwise known as The Lion, into a deal outside the Royal Court, by all means it would spare me a few headaches and hours of boring speeches in the Hall of Friendship. Because the griffon that led the attack is Grigory, his son."

She took a step back at the mention of the epitaph. "But… But… They must be held accountable!"

"And they will. As will your company be given fair compensation. If you let me do my work. Maybe your executive officers could take a day off once in a while and relax a bit?"

"Princess!" She wished that panicking ponies would speak more softly rather than louder, but the mayor bawled further. "We just suffered an attack from a foreign power! This was an act of war!"

Fortunately, the mare was too busy calculating the effects of that on her salary and the Lord Surgeon seemed more mature. Or at least trusted her, like the Lord Protector.

"No, that wasn't an attack, and neither was it an act of war or from a foreign power." Her now serious tone at least seemed to freeze the pony into listening rather than panicking and drew the other's attention. "What happened was that a young and impulsive griffon, propelled by their proud ideology dragged his friends and some resources he might have been yet too immature to be responsible for into a situation that all of them might have avoided had they been wiser."

"And that is why you will calm the population and assure them of their safety, while EQMagical will patiently wait until the investigations are done and the Royal Guard has dealt with the situation and the Princess has peacefully cleared this unfortunate situation with the future King of the Griffons." They blinked at them. "Understand?"

The mayor and the mare nodded at her with huge eyes.

"Wonderful." She smiled. "Run along now. There are things you must care for."

Without much thought they scampered off past the local guards securing the corridor and left the princess with the Lords Protector and Surgeon. She turned to the latter, who spoke calmly. "All their injuries will be covered by the Public Health System, majesty. The whole thing's gone through already."

She nodded silently and the pony then bowed at her and left, leaving her alone with the Lord Protector.

"What a mess, princess." He sighed when they were alone. "I have a couple of militiaponies riling up the others about asking questions in the griffon neighborhoods. And I thought that the 'Dragon Incident' in Manehattan was bad… And some of the nobility is making noise about this to the mayor and other city officials. This could turn ugly if more griffons are involved in attacks, especially with their recruiters going around in griffon neighborhoods and talking about The Lion."

"They want a culprit they can reach. That is not acceptable. Remind them that those griffons, even the ones that attacked the teleporter are still my subjects and that Griffonia, with all its holds is still part of Equestria under my rule. And that includes even Lord Gilad, who is likely to become the King of the Griffons and that Equestria supports him and his promise of dutiful and honored rule after all the accusations of corruption Chancellor Silkfeather has suffered. Please, help the mayor keep the city under control and its population safe, Lord Protector. The griffons are my problem."

"Absolutely, Princess. I'll make sure my stallions and mares reassure the population that things are under control. Do you need me to do anything else? Because of the whole situation with Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Cadance?"

"Are you implying that the attack is related?"

"Neither of us are stupid, Princess." He grinned. "For example, this yellow griffoness seemed important. So, I took a gander. She is on a watchlist and she is to be rejected a job at all universities and magical research institutions in Equestria. Princess Celestia is not spooked very easily like that."

She mimicked his grin, appreciating a perspicacious pony that wanted to help. "Well, you would be right. But you should also know that I am dealing with this and all the assistance that I require from you and your militia is that you make sure your airships are prepared to intercept Princess Twilight's airship if the ambush by the Royal Guard causes them to divert their course into your range. Additionally, under no circumstances any militia under your jurisdiction should engage with those griffons. You do not want to see your militiaponies dealing with those griffons, which is something that those griffons too understand, and that is why they left the city without additional drama."

His lips turned into a smug grin. "Don't worry, Princess. I know when something is above my pay."

She rolled her eyes turning to leave him with his ponies in the corridor. If only a pair of princesses understood that.

Back in the reception hall, after getting herself lost a couple of times, she was met with the mayor glaring at her two Royal Guards and a few missing canapes and pieces of the cake. Also present was Luna and Lieutenant Crucible Wings, the former of them halfway into eating one of the canapes.

"Hello sister." The blue alicorn greeted. "Everything is going as it should."

But then the two mares stared at the mayor who huffed and pouted. "Fine. I'll be in the City Hall if you don't need me. Excuse me."

After he stormed off, Luna spoke again. "Crucible went to Manehattan and spoke with the Lord Protector."

"He was not happy." The pony in armor shrugged. "It sounds like this Naminé is trouble. And also slippery like an oily-eel. He said she has been quiet and not creating her usual trouble and because of that they left her alone."

"It is just one pony. One unicorn nowhere near as powerful to be on the Unicorn Watchlist. Why would they have trouble with her?" Luna finished her canape and asked him while Celestia sat in front of them.

"She has amassed a following. A sort of cult and they protect her like she is their… Well… Leader."

"Oh, great. Another Starlight Glimmer. At least she's not on the watchlist." Luna grunted. "Why don't we have her and her cult under 'preemptive arrest'? That's what they call it, right?"

"Because that is a violation of civil rights, Luna." Her sister glared at her. "Talking with Twilight and Cadance would not be a crime, even in the present circumstances."

"You could call it conspiracy, Princess." Her guard shrugged and Luna glared back at her.

"If I remember correctly, 'civil rights' weren't exactly a problem when you decided that Lord Magnus should eat a bowl of glass."

"Your memory fails you, Luna." She spat right back and Crucible had trouble deciding which glared the hardest at the other. "Civil Rights hadn't been invented yet and I am glad you were too young to understand or remember any of that."

She frowned at Luna. "Of all the things that happened that is what you remember?"

"Well, I also remember that you had the hots for Cherry." Luna rolled her eyes and huffed. "Fine. I'd hope that the militia of a large city such as Manehattan would be able to keep her under control."

"That is not the problem, Luna. The problem is that as Discord let slip, Chrysalis had decided to help them. She certainly has sent her agents to facilitate their meeting or is going to as soon as she feels she can get away with it."

The worst part of it was that Luna couldn't convince herself that Celestia was wrong. She grunted again. "What do we do now?"

"We can't have the city militia looking for changelings right now." Celestia turned to Crucible. "Please, visit the Lord Protector again and explain that changeling infiltrators are to be ignored and that he must focus on capturing Twilight and Cadance if they make it to Manehattan. If things go the right way, we'll have been much sooner than that. In the meanwhile, don't even think about Naminé."

"Why don't you make Chrysalis call them back?" Luna asked and Celestia simply stared at her with a flat expression. "Right… She'll deny it until the day she dies… I feel like we should do something about her, though."

"And we shall. That is why she is going to help us and stay with us until this whole mess is resolved. Chrysalis does want to know 'The Truth'. She thinks it will validate her hurt ego. But she is not ready to understand it yet, and you must be careful she doesn't twist her words around in your mind. Don't forget that Chrysalis is dangerous. "

"There is another very important issue." Celestia went on. "The airship that teleported. The Lion's son is likely commanding it. And he has an interesting friend."

"Wonderful…" Luna sighed. "But not really surprising."

"Crucible, you must contact all the local militias and order them, on my authority to not engage with these griffons under any circumstance. At the same time, also inform all Royal Guard garrisons that Grigory is likely to be accompanied by a yellow and white, young griffoness named Galensa. They are authorized to apprehend and restrain her with any measure necessary upon sight. Her friends are likely to defend her and tell them to be aware of that. She will be surrounded by professional soldiers from Griffindell, if Grigory is with her."

"Yes Princess." Was all he said. "It's a shame Captain Armor isn't around."

"What is so scary about her, Celestia?"

"Galensa was a genius student from Snow Mountains that graduated with excellent grades at Bay County. She was offered a job in thaumatoengineering research and she excelled in her work. Then I found out she was creating a magical weapon capable of destroying half Canterlot County." Luna gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof in a way Celestia wasn't entirely sure she was making fun of her worry or legitimately scared like she was at the time. "Some two years ago I had her expelled and ensured she wouldn't get a job anywhere near a place that could enable her to continue her research and made sure somepony kept an eye on her."

"But she returned to Snow Mountains and my informant lost her. I didn't worry too much because the chance of her continuing her research there was miniscule and I hadn't heard about her until now."

Luna saw Celestia's eyes changed. She was worried. Not in the funny way she was when Chrysalis showed up in Canterlot and started talking about their joint project or about a dead griffon emperor. Celestia was 'we all could die horribly'-worried. "Do you think that The Lion is funding her research?"

Then Luna gasped again. "If they are after Twilight and Cadance… They could be after the Elements of Harmony. I don't think so, but can they be used to power such a weapon?"

Celestia shook her head. "They are a physical focus of Harmony itself, Luna. They can't be used for wanton destruction. But Twilight and Cadance are likely to be accumulating information and it seems that The Lion, or at least Grigory is interested in what they have found."

"Princess…" Crucible called. "Twilight's airship had to change course to go to Haybale. It is on the way to Manehattan, but not on a direct course."

"Correct." She agreed, then looked back at Luna. "Twilight likely has friends that are helping her, and they found something of interest there. Or they were drawn there."

Luna nodded back at her. "And at the same time, Grigory knew to look for them in there… Which is why his airship went straight there and didn't follow Flying Snake's… And you've put Chocolate Velvet in their way!"

"He will be fine, Luna. He will protect Cadance and Twilight. And even if they hurt him… I trust in his ability and loyalty." The younger sister nodded at Celestia's words. "I don't think The Lion has the resources, to make a functional weapon, Luna. I don't even think that he would have the desire to do so. We need more information. Crucible, order a search in all the records for the other griffons that appeared with her and Grigory in the teleporter facility. I need to know everything there is to know about them."

"Aye, Princess."

"In the meanwhile, Luna, go back to the Bordello and ask Chrysalis to join us in the Break of Dawn with all the soldiers she can spare from The Rock. Preferably with Thorax too."

Luna simply nodded.

"Look for me. I'll be waiting onboard and in position when you arrive, and we will try to intercept the griffon airship before they contact Twilight. This is turning into a mess and we have to fix this soon. I need to know how much The Lion knows of Emperor Grigor and interviewing Grigory and his friends might be ideal. Then we'll have to escort them back to Griffindel. We may not be able to participate in the ambush near Baltimare."

"Princess, I don't like the fact that everything seems to be happening at the same time and in the same general area." Crucible added. "I don't know if we'll be able to stop them from coming into contact with Twilight and Cadance."

Something clicked inside Celestia's head. "Isn't it peculiar that there was an issue with money being diverted from Ponyville's militia and then everything started happening? Cadance found the letter… This airship appeared. Galensa resurfaced. Twilight and Cadance were drawn to a small town out of the way…"

"Chrysalis made her super-soldiers…" Luna reminded her. "Although, she's likely been messing with those from much earlier… Still. Do you think that they are trying to distract us?"

"No…" Celestia mused quietly. "Discord might have wanted to distract us because he wanted Twilight and Cadance to find Naminé, but it's different. Someone ensured Cadance would find the letter and knew that she would find Twilight to investigate it. Incidentally, we discovered the problems with Ponyville's militia. They didn't intend for Discord and Chrysalis to get involved. That was because Twilight and Cadance sought her instead of seeking The Lion right away."

"Inadvertently, Twilight and Cadance threw a wrench in their plans and everything got complicated. So, they're scrambling to fix the problem before we figure out what they are doing." Luna nodded. "Do you think that they caused the problem with the militia too? Somehow?"

"No. It's easier to assume that they exploited an existing situation." Celestia nodded. "Whoever it was, understands what those ponies were going through and exploited the situation because they were that much more vulnerable. Very, very few creatures in the world could have understood that. Not only that, but they had the resources to probe for that sort of thing."

Luna frowned and nodded in agreement. Then she looked at her sister with pained eyes. "Discord?"

"I don't know. I don't think that he would… I just don't know yet. Right now I need to deal with the funding issue. I think they were siphoning money for something. Luna, do you think you can deal with the griffons and with Twilight?"

"I think that I can. You're going to Canterlot?"

"I must ensure that those responsible don't vanish. Or worse. I have some questions that need answers."

"Celestia…" Luna ears fell a little. "What about Chrysalis' children? Her Praetorians?"

"I'm afraid they'll have to wait." She shook her head softly. "They are safe with Chrysalis."

"Didn't you just say that she is dangerous?" Luna frowned.

"She is. But not to them. Chrysalis is confused, but she is compelled to love them and to nourish and protect them. They are safe with her."

"How do you know? I mean… She killed them. Several times, as ridiculous as this sounds. She's done horrible things to them." Luna pouted a little. "You sound like those times when you know something and won't tell me about it!"

"And she suffered through it. It was not meant to be, and she hurt herself as much as she hurt them. I know this, Luna. And you know it too. You're simply not paying attention. We share that imperative. Which is also the same reason Twilight and Cadance are doing what they are."

"Huh…" The other looked down thoughtfully.

"Yeah… This is too deep for me." Crucible deadpanned at them. "With all due respect, I have orders to follow."

The griffons had decided that they'd walk the final stretch of their journey and Discord didn't complain. Apparently, it was forbidden to fly near the cities, or something like that. It was a nice walk anyways. Out of the snow and the short grass was nice on his feet. It was cold though. And wet. But that didn't bother him. The griffons had stopped to replenish their water supply, canteens. One for each and they took the cold water from a fast and crystalline stream. The young male even gave him to drink before replenishing the thing.

"It comes down from the mountains." The young male pointed at the tall snow-covered peaks. "Griffons love the mountains! They provide everything. Food. Water. Shelter. And roosting."

The image on Discord's head was a bunch of griffons piled up on a tree that was toppling over from the weight.

"They even protect us from the monsters." He went on with a gesture. "They diverge them elsewhere, particularly the undead creatures since they are rather stupid."

"Bah!" We don't need any help from the mountains!" The small cub cried disdainfully. "We kill all the monsters!"

"We can't kill all of them." The male retorted and rolled his eyes.

"Yes, we can, you dope!"

"We won't be killing any monsters if we don't make it to Brokenhorn." The father told them, and it was all it took for them to focus and resume their walk.

Soon they were climbing a soft incline covered in patches of grass on the dark soil. The ubiquitous clouds closed most of the sky, but Discord could imagine it wouldn't be too long before Celestia set the sun and Luna rose her moon. He was curious about how the griffons viewed that daily cycle since they didn't seem to like ponies.

His thoughts were interrupted when the cute griffon child flew and hovered before him. "Why do so many monsters come from the Frozen North? Especially undead monsters! They're the worst! They cast frost spells all over the grain fields, and they make it really cold, which doesn't really bother me, but they moan and growl in such a weird way! What is up with them? Don't they just know to die already?"

Discord actually knew the answer! "Well, not all of them are really undead."

For an instant, he wasn't really sure he was supposed to talk about that with a young child, but if her father took her to track a lich, it should be fine.

"Truly undead creatures have a functioning soul trapped and corrupted in them, and that is what makes them so powerful. Like the archlich. But there are also other kinds of false undead monsters that are nothing more than the physical remains of a creature that was reanimated by foreign magic looking for a host! Typically, evil magic."

"It's usually their intelligence that gives it away, you see. Truly undead monsters are dumb! Except for especial ones. Like liches. They are truly evil creatures that turned themselves into undead monsters to stop the process of aging and become immortal, but in doing that they corrupt their own magic and most of them become mindless, even if rather smart for these kinds of monsters." He stopped for a second. "Uh, did you understand that?"

"Uh-hu!" She nodded excitedly. "But why do they come from the North? There are plenty of dead things in the South too!"

"Well, that is because of the Windigos!" He gestured like he was telling a spooky story. "Their magic damages the magic in everything. They make good creatures bad. They mess with the very magic of the world and that is why they cause the everlasting winter! It's like that part of the world is not working right."

"Oooh! That makes sense!" The small griffon nodded enthusiastically. "I guess it took some courage for the ponies to summon up this kind of cursed magic just to hurt us!"

Whoa! Wait! What? "Come again?"

"They summoned the Windigos to destroy our lands because they couldn't keep us from taking theirs too." She explained calmly. "It's what they call 'starched land strategy'!"

"It's 'scorched land', dumbass." Her brother growled.

"Whatever." She waved away the correction. "When you destroy the very land that you can't keep your enemy from taking and you hate them so much that you don't want them to have it either. Filling it with an unlivable winter that creates monsters is pretty much that."

"Whoa! Hold on!" He put out his hands. "It's not like that! The ponies didn't do it to hurt the griffons! Those things hurt them a lot too!"

"The Harpy says they did!" She retorted with some confusion. "She said they hated us and that the pegasuses wanted the sky for themselves! The earth ponies turned the tress and the earth against us, and the unicorns made the animals rebel! Can you believe this? What kind of animal doesn't want to be hunted by a fierce griffon?"

The little one suddenly delivered a lot of information, didn't she? "Is that so? Hum. Where can I find this Harpy?"

"The Lion will show her to you, Lord of Chaos." The father said in his stoic tone. "We are mere students in the path that he mastered. Like a true Patriarch for the True Griffons, her Chosen."

Well, that didn't sound worrying at all. Or creepy. Worrying and creepy. Maybe that was enough to run back to Celestia and tell her of this Harpy, but he had to remember he was there to make friends first. Hum… Should he have an opportunity, perhaps.

"Hum. That sounds interesting."

"I am sorry, Lord of Chaos." The father said. "The cub spoke out of place. We are not allowed to discuss the Harpy with outsiders, for our safety."

"I understand." He did his best to sound understanding rather than disappointed. "I really do. You live under threat to your way of life because… Let's say the rest of the world doesn't agree with you. I'm not here to judge, you know. I'm here because you guys made me feel like I'm important to you. Celestia said I should cultivate that."

"We may not agree with the pony Princesses. And some of us hate them. But even in our deepest moments of wrath we recognize and respect honesty. And in that she has never failed with us. Even in our darkest songs of grievance we recognize that she has never lied or used dirty subterfuge with us."

"Well, that is actually a promising start!" He grinned at the griffon and he almost, kinda… Sort of grinned too. Discord could see that smiling wasn't his forte.

Then he turned to the two younglings. Brother and sister staring at each other like an old feud was about to blow up. "So, I hope you're not in trouble for speaking to me about the Harpy."

"Nah!" She waved her little paw about and then put it over her chest while she recited. "Lady Gwendolen says that cubs are supposed to do silly things. Chaos is in our nature and it is futile to suppress it."

"Meanwhile the 'young toms', now able to grasp that rules exist are supposed to exercise their restraint and comprehend that rules must be understood before they can be safely broken." The older brother growled in the same cadence.

"Is that so?" He winked at her. "Can you tell me about Lady Gwendolen?"

"She is the greatest! And coolest! And most awesome griffon EVER!" She screamed all the excitement Discord imagined could fit inside her body.

"She is the most beautiful griffoness in existence…" Her brother sighed at the same time, all dreamy eyes and silly smile.

"Eww…" The small griffon followed.

"I've been told that she is some sort of leader?"

"Lady Gwendolen is more than that." The father spoke again. "She is Lord Gilad's mate and as such she ensures that all their subjects are properly educated and behave in a manner befitting our race."

"She stays in Griffindell, right? I suppose I should pay her a visit after I met The Lion."

"He will likely take you to see her. There… Brokenhorn."

From the top of the hill they could see the city past an open field covered in a few plantations. Small stone and wooden houses dotted the fields amid the tapestry of flimsy green plants clinging to life, barely surviving the cold. Behind a weird crooked rock rose several hundred hooves above. It was dotted with holes and some of them showed light coming from inside. The top looked sharp and jagged, actually as though it was a broken horn. Several houses of different sizes and shapes circled the rocky formation and it all was surrounded with a black stone wall with some tall towers and a large gatehouse. At least from where Discord could see.

The whole thing radiated magic too. It didn't sing, or whisper to him this time. It was like the natural magic of the world. It simply sat where it was and made things happen. The whole wall was covered in strengthening magic. Maybe it was the material they chose to build the walls with? It seemed filled with purpose, like the pony enchanted weapons that he knew. Maybe the griffons knew a way of enchanting the things they created. Even without horns to focus magic. They had wings and stood on clouds like the pegasus, after all and Discord's seen Rainbow Dash do some impressive things with their natural magic.

They walked at a brisker pace now that they were so close to the city and things seemed livelier. A few griffons that watched over the fields stopped in their tracks and stared. A merchant, or something of the sort stopped on the beaten path to the gates between the fields and stared still with his cart filled with 'stuff' hitched to his shoulders.

City guards congregated on the walls to watch them approach the city, all wearing a silvery cuirass and armed with those guns. One of them ordered the others to do something and soon the gates started slowly opening outwards.

They were bigger than he had noticed from afar. Heavy, noisy black metal gates. And past them the gatehouse was a simply stone structure. Past it the beaten path continued, and a lot of griffons gathered there. Of all ages and sizes. Wearing different clothes or none at all. They were on the sides of street, in front of the houses because in the middle of the street was one single male griffon.

Sweet Celestia on a pogo stick, did that griffon look formidable.

He was big and mean. He exuded power with his serious stare. All blackish-brown under a combination of black armor and a heavy fur coat. Discord didn't know what sort of fur that was, but it was black, thick and heavy. Above it, the griffon's head as a pristine white with brown eyes and he wore a small and discreet golden diadem with a single ruby. He really didn't need more to project an aura of majesty.

Then he bowed before him. It almost scared Discord. The gesture spread like a wave in all directions among the congregated griffons. Discord didn't even began imagining how to react to this. Should he bow too? Should he wait? Still, the others rose when The Lion stood again. His wings flared open and threw his fur cloak in between them and he spoke with a deep bass.

"Witness, Brokenhorn! The Lord of Chaos comes to the Snow Mountains. Celebrate, Children of the Harpy! History writes itself before your eyes at the edge of a new age."

Around Discord the griffons jumped, cried, whooped and some of them even sang. Some of them stood and pumped fists into the air or jumped with a flap of wings and made pirouettes. The small cub that accompanied him and her brother celebrated as well as their father, even if he seemed a lot more restrained.

The excitement died down after a while once their lord returned to his regal poise. An old griffon approached, but he still seemed physically fit and wore a golden chain around his neck, along with a plain silver diadem that went well with his gray fur and cyan head. Calm yellow eyes hovered over Discord until he lowered them and bowed slightly, next to Gilad.

Then the tracker griffon approached, and his two cubs remained respectfully a body's length behind him. "My Jarl. My liege. We searched for the creature, but it eluded us. It moves quite a lot for a lich and we couldn't even find tracks to follow."

"No matter, friend." The silvery griffon held his shoulder with a paw and spoke hoarsely with a smile. "You've brought us something far more important."

"Quite." Gilad added with his much more impressive voice. "The foul monster can wait for all I care. Tonight, we will feast. No goat, or cow. We will eat roasted caribou fresh out of the woods."

Their audience celebrated again, and Discord noticed he hadn't yet spoken a word. It made him conscious, as though it might look like he didn't care enough for their reception.

"Thank you, Lord Gilad. I am very honored at your reception." He grinned sheepishly. "Even if I'm not entirely sure I deserve it. It is a bit overwhelming."

The big griffon nodded. And then he smiled in a way that Discord never thought would be possible in such a stern and powerful creature. "You will understand. She will show it to you."

Yeah… Creepy.


	17. The Quadrupedal Mind

A feast was organized impromptu, and Discord tried not to make petty comparisons, but he had a hard time remembering when did the ponies stop an entire city to celebrate the fact that he was simply there. Griffons that lived in the wilderness close to the city came to the festivity, and not only the farmers, but hunters that lived hours away. Travelers leaving to visit another city or to return home decided to stay and join the feast and celebrate.

The same beaten path outside the gates continued well into the city and branched out into other streets in between the stone and wood buildings. Houses and stores, most of them. The path ended on an open area before 'The Horn' and in the back of such area was a sort of audience place with a few tall ceremonial seats. One for the Jarl, another for The Lion, and one for Discord in the center, and then other seats for other griffons. Before them was a large curved table. Its wings half-embraced an open area imagined was used for audiences and the such, and further was a crackling fire in the middle of half-a dozen caribou carcasses roasting at the stakes, skinned, and cleaned within a couple of hours after they started preparing the feast.

He could see why the ponies and these northerner griffons would be cross. He couldn't imagine them condoning this whole affair surrounding six dead hooved creatures. He was aware of how much of a controversy that thing was among these groups, and even with the more pony-friendly griffons to the south, but he felt it would be out of his place to denounce it or condemn it. If he had learned anything, it was that there was a time for everything.

Well, he didn't eat meat nor traditional pony food. He usually ate the plates and napkins. If anything, it put him in a neutral position to mediate. Celestia had it right once again.

There was a lot of discussion and that was one of the reasons the griffons in the north were so pissed with the ponies. At the same time, there was no outright prohibition on game hunting simply because fish was an important source of food and of income in Mount Aris and almost every single coastal city of every race. Ponies kept carnivorous pets and zoos would need to feed their animals too.

Eventually Celestia brought down the hammer and made hunting and fishing regulated activities. The slaughtering of any creature capable of higher reasoning was forbidden and farm animals were protected. In fact, wild animals were protected too, including these caribou the griffons roasted in his honor. They were capable of rational thought, just not 'as much' as the ponies… That was a tough topic to explain. Other hooved animals typically were smart enough to talk, but most of them had a more primitive intelligence.

They behaved different and that made the argument complicated. These creatures would live in the wild and distance themselves from cities and villages. They wouldn't accumulate wealth or educate themselves. They were content with simply being themselves and existing in their place. To some, this meant that they were put there to serve as prey. What is worse, these creatures accepted that fate. Their defenders would never understand why. Not that they wouldn't fight for their lives, far from it, but they wouldn't look for help from those that would protect them. It a simple predator and prey relationship.

There was something important about that Discord seemed to have forgotten.

That whole mess was one of the reasons the two Griffon Wars happened if Discord's endeavor into pony history could be trusted with all that mess of changed history.

He was just happy it wasn't his job to figure that one out. He also didn't really understand why it happened. His mind drifted back to his conversation with Twilight, Cadance and their friends and he wondered if had something to do with the Animus Imperative. Were they really just put in their places to serve as a source of food to others?

From the point of view of the grass that would certainly make sense.

Thinking too much had a tendency of ruining the thinker and the situation he found himself in precluded such thoughts.

The music was the best. Drums, flutes, lutes and some instruments he didn't know the name of. All he knew was that the music was different than what he traditionally heard in present day pony parties. Though he also remembered a time when ponies partied very much in the same way. Just like these griffons they would dance, play instruments and eat until they couldn't anymore. Parties in the present had a tendency of becoming social affairs. The ones he had in mind from the past were sheer manifestations of pure joy, in the open instead of big halls. With improvised music. Rustic food.

Celestia had once told him that ponies had civilized themselves too much and it was boring. He supposed he had finally understood what she meant. She was also a bit drunk and whining about some date she had, or something. It was a boring conversation anyway.

The air was cold, but the giant bonfire and the partying griffons generated enough heat that one could completely forget they were surrounded by one of the coldest areas in the known world. Most of the light was provided by the fire too, with a few torches, since Luna's Moon was hidden behind the clouds.

And even if he didn't find the big game meat appetizing, he did enjoy the roasted potatoes, tomatoes, and the fish. He held a stick in his hand with the pieces of fish, tomato, potato, and chunks of bell peppers, like any of them would and they appreciated that he liked their food. They just didn't expect that she would eat the sticks too.

Not that any griffon complained though. They just stared curiously, and the sticks tasted good anyways.

He refrained from drinking the mugs, though. He figured they'd be too expensive, and that mead stuff was almost as good as the wine from the Royal Reserve. He could drink that stuff all night.

At his side the old Jarl of Brokenhorn picked at the leg bones of a rabbit with his beak, not really paying it much attention to it, which he directed at the dancing griffons next to the table.

"How did your lordship end up here? I had figured that the ponies would do everything in their power to keep you from actually meeting us."

"Funny thing. Celestia asked me to come when I told her you guys liked me."

The griffon chuckled. "Now I am nervous."

Lord Gilad on his other side spoke with his deep voice after leaving his mug on the table. "Never mind him, Lord of Chaos. Some old griffons have difficulty understanding that the biggest problem we face are not the ponies or even the Princesses. It is other griffons."

The older griffon bah'd at him with a dismissive wave and threw the bone at the fire. "You didn't have to stand in formation with unicorns shooting magical fire at you."

"Ignore me, Lordship." The Jarl continued. "Old griffons become bitter and pesky."

"Indeed, the problem seems to be griffons." Discord pulled at his beard, watching curiously while the griffons brought wood planks and prepared some sort of stage in front of the fire. "Whatever happened to that... Army I saved from being slaughtered by Lord… Graham, I believe was his name?"

"They are prisoners in an encampment right next to Stormedge. I'll be damned if I've ever before seen such a pathetic lot of soldiers in my life." The old Jarl answered throwing a small cherry tomato down his beak. "They are being well-treated if that is what your lordship wishes to know."

Discord nodded to him, satisfied with the information, but Gilad spoke again. "Those are not the ones who concern me either."

"Who are they, then?"

"The ones that are too cowardly to pick up a weapon and fight for what they believe." He frowned while he stared at the fire and the stage being assembled with two big logs. "History has a penchant for rhyming. And I do believe that your lordship knows history, as does Princess Celestia."

That confused Discord. He thumped his fingers on his mug nervously. "I don't understand. Princess Celestia is perfectly fine with you becoming King of the Griffons."

"She is." He lowered his voice. "Until I actually am and suddenly griffons are crying for her help. As I said, history rhymes. It's like a song that loves repeating its refrains with the most dramatic of choirs."

"History isn't my forte. But I understand. I can tell you that Celestia has sent me to meet you guys because she believes in building a bridge."

"I can respect that." The griffon smiled earnestly again. "If there is one thing that I can't say about her is that she is likely deal in underhanded ways with us."

"I am sure she appreciates that trust."

The Jarl raised his hand in the most petulant way Discord had ever seen, and his eyes remained fixed on the impromptu stage. "Ah… These talks are best left to another time."

Both of them agreed with the old griffon and by that time the stage was complete. It had a pair of pillars holding a long swath of red linen among them, shinning a bit with the giant fire behind it and above the flat surface of wood planks. To Discord that didn't really understand their traditions it seemed like something especial was about to happen.

"Is that Gwineth?" Gilad asked the Jarl, staring with him at a particularly beautiful griffon lady calmly walking toward the stage.

"She is." The old griffon wouldn't take his eyes off of her.

"She looks stunning."

A very young steely-blue furred griffoness with a silvery head and blue eyes with cyan 'eye shadow'. It called Discord's attention that she was the only griffon in that entire affair that seemed. Different. He struggled finding the word he was looking for, but 'sophisticated' seemed appropriate. Maybe she had come recently from one of the more pony friendly cities?

She carried a longsword on her back, made with darkened steel and it seemed to be charged with magic. The only thing on Discord's mind was what was she going to do with that sword, but the males in the crowd and in his company seemed hypnotized by the young female for completely different reasons to the point it began feeling creepy. It seemed that these griffons could be very creepy.

Regardless, she seemed proud of all the attention she was getting, and Discord's curiosity only grew. "Who is she?"

"Gwineth is a matter of pride for Brokenhorn." The Jarl said. "Not only is she known as one of the most beautiful of our race, but she is also a pureblooded descendant of Emperor Grigor. Is your Lordship familiar?"

"I've heard of him. Yes. I know that his legacy is very important to your hold."

"Given her heritage and attributes, she was chosen by Lady Gwendolen, trained and educated with several skills that make her special among our kind."

The way this griffon talked about her made Discord ever more worried about that creepy tone of his. Regardless, he had to admit that she was quite beautiful, as far as Discord was able to discern the traits of beauty in a griffon, and at least The Lion wasn't so overtly creepy about it.

"And what would those skills be?"

"She is the product of Gwendolen's love of our older traditions." Gilad explained. "She called Gwineth a Swordmaiden."

"Though I am not so sure about the maiden part." The Jarl laughed at his own joke and Discord's 'creep-o-meter' might have exploded if it was turned on. Gilad didn't seem to like the joke either.

Meanwhile Gwineth talked to an older, tan and white griffoness holding some sort of musical instrument and lord Gilad talked to Discord again. "She spent a few years of her life in Griffindell, studying with our Loremasters, and with my mate, Gwendolen. Your Lordship will have to meet her and will leave just as soon as the lich is dealt with."

Discord simply nodded. He had assumed that The Lion would want to talk to him but would also want to do so when the party was done, and also with his mate present. He didn't believe Chrysalis' and had a hunch that she was actually very important to the griffons. More so than a 'pretty face' he had mated. These griffons certainly didn't.

The Lion seemed a lot friendlier than he was led to believe though. Curious.

He had distracted himself and wasn't paying attention, but it was then the older griffoness with the instrument started playing by the side of the stage. It produced a haunting sound that reminded him of a rustic violin. A combination of raspy metal sounds and the wind. In a way, it seemed appropriate to the region and the gruff griffons that lived there. Another two griffons joined with simple wood and leather, but dramatic drums.

The younger Gwineth stood on her hindlegs in the middle of stage, holding the sword point down to the wood in front of her. Her head lowered and closed eyes, she seemed to focus her mind, and to Discord's special eyes, she bled magic into the air and her weapon seemed to syphon it into characters etched into the blade. Runic magic, how appropriate.

It exuded blue magical fire and scorched the wood where the tip of the blade touched it. When her owner spun and swirled it around herself it cut and burned the wood several times, sending blazing splinters into the air. What is more, the sword whistled through the routine of sweeping arc and spinning flourishes, leaving a faint trail of blue magical light in the air.

Now Discord wasn't a specialist in the martial arts, and he had never even come close to using a sword, but he saw she didn't simply spin the blade in her paws, though. She held it purposely and every movement seemed like a proper cut with the weapon, even the flourishes she performed seemed controlled with precision to come within a hair's length of cutting herself apart with a dangerous magical weapon.

Of course, with the way the old griffon and the others in the audience stared at her and the sweat shinning the flame's light in her fur and muscles underneath, it was pretty obvious that he and the griffons around them were seeing different things. Not that he couldn't appreciate her beauty and graceful, even sensual movements, but Discord was used to seeing deeper.

He didn't judge them either. He understood it was a part of their beings and ponies did similar things. He still remember when ponies build entire cults to love that turned out to be… Well… The Bordello of Candy on steroids.

The 'thing' was that he knew how taxing it was for such quadrupedal creatures to stand in such a fashion, much more with such control and balance. No wonder she was a beautiful creature, even against the bright flames her silhouette betrayed powerful muscles to keep such a weapon under control and with such precision.

She wasn't a dancer, but a fighter and she wasn't performing for some creepy old griffon, she was showing off not only her physical fitness, but her magical prowess and pure skill. Someone knew very well what they were doing.

He was no investigator either, but perhaps a conversation with this Gwineth was in order.

It was said that in modern times Equestria didn't sleep. And to a certain degree that was correct. Ponies said that it greatly pleased the Princess of the Night that ponies had learned to appreciate her night in modern times and she even visited nightly dance houses and all sorts of nocturnal entertainment in Canterlot when her nightmare hunting allowed it of her.

But Silent Wind, nicknamed 'Whoosh' by her co-workers, colleagues and clients belonged to a special kind of pony that appreciated the night a long time before the modern times. When ponies invented the brothels, inns and taverns her kind was there already. But while some specialized in providing company, her kind specialized in relieving costumers of prized possessions.

But as the skilled professional she was she ventured on into a more lucrative venue of work for a pony with streetwise in a city like Canterlot. She figured that rich ponies, for some stupid reason she couldn't grasp always wanted to be richer, no matter how much money they already had. And some wanted that so much that they would break the law, and when they broke the law, they would find themselves in trouble. That was where Whoosh's skills were needed. And the price, of course, was on par with her costumers.

She had her eyes on a job for the Crown about assisting in retrieving a certain couple of princesses at odds with the Royal House, and that job was good since the Royal House always paid and those pampered ponies were likely to be an easy target. Besides, she had heard that Flying Snake was on it too. Even if she'd need special preparations for that job, all she would have to do was show up, pull her weight and split the pay. Sweet as mango.

But when none other than the county's Lord Protector's secretary contacted her, she knew that it could be the job of her life. She took it without thinking much. Even if dealing with canterlotian nobility was a pain in the flank most of the times.

She crossed her legs, under her dark-gray cloak with the hood down letting her pretty batpony head with her golden eyes show and leaned against the door's frame watching the old unicorn freaking out and desperately looking for 'stuff' in his office. It was a nice place, his home office in his mansion. She didn't know what he had done, but she doubted he would ever show his face in the County Militia Administration ever again. It was funny in a way because he was the sort of pony that would've give her trouble for her typical job.

It was amusing to see ponies freaking out anyways. The old pony was sand yellow with a once reddish mane turning grey. He was probably a strapping local militia at one time (or just a pampered noble that got a job because of his name). He still had quite a lot of muscles on his large frame, for a unicorn. Not that she herself was much bigger as a bat-pony, but whatever.

He ran to the other side of the office and pulled open several drawers, then squealed in panic and pulled down the curtain to the window. Then slammed each of the drawers, one at a time until he found what he was looking for. A cigar case. It was a pretty one to be sure, gold embroidery and all. Ironically the cover was an image of Princess Celestia raising the sun.

"Sir!" His young secretary by the desk sounded on the brink of panic too. "I think you should take things of real importance only."

Poor young thing. One of those young pegasus that got infatuated with some rich, high and mighty city official that was gonna fix all the problems in the world and when she noticed that he is about as crooked as all the criminals he was gonna put in the dungeon she was already too loyal to turn on him.

Silent wished she believed those crazy ponies that said Princess Celestia sent bad ponies to Tartarus because then she could imagine this jerk would have a nice place in there right next to Cerberus' pissing post.

Regardless of Whoosh's feelings, the old pony stared at the object he held and left it on the table. "Yes. Yes, you are right. Oh, my goodness! It wasn't supposed to come to this! It was supposed to be simply a side project! And it was not like anypony would ever notice the missing money!"

Whoosh cleared her throat. "Whoah! Chief, mind your words. They say the walls have ears."

She couldn't hold a diminutive smirk. In Canterlot the walls had sophisticated divination spells, rather than popular sayings.

The unicorn did shut up, but he kept looking for something in his desk. The secretary sat on her haunches and held her own hooves. "Sir… We really should be worrying about things you should need on your travel, since our bags are already on the airship."

"But I need it!" He almost screamed in panic throwing papers and office supplies all over the room until he finally found it: a pretty heart shaped locket. Silent Wind couldn't believe it. "My wives would kill me if I left it behind!"

He even opened it to show it to her. A nice heart shaped photograph of one of those tall and pretty saddle arabian mares next to a tall and elegant unicorn mare. "Well, you found it. Cool. Are you ready then?"

"Yes! I am terribly sorry, Madam Silent Wind. But this is most important. My wives are on vacation, as you suggested, but I simply could not leave this behind. It is from our second marriage you know. I have to get one with our daughters, but… Well... Time."

"Yes, yes." She waved her hoof at him. "Get this thing somewhere safe cause we're not coming back for it if you lose it."

Then the door to the office opened and one of her helpers, an earth pony's head slipped in, covered in a black balaclava and a cloak over his seemingly orange body. "All set, boss."

"Cool!" The bat pony grinned. "Let's review the cover story."

The unicorn nodded. "Yes! My family was set to go on vacation to Las Pegasus, and that is why my wives and daughters left. But I had to stay behind to prepare a report on Ponyville's situation to Lord Blueblood that was to be sent to him tomorrow. Thus, I left this night to meet my family in Las Pegasus using my private yacht!"

"Yes!" Silent Wind nodded at him and then at his secretary.

"Oh! I was supposed to accompany Lord Stalwart Star to the docks and go home. Then, by the morning I would take his report to Lord Blueblood in Canterlot Palace! But when I arrived in the morning the mansion was gone. So, I ran to the Militia!"

The bat pony nodded again and then stared at her earth pony accomplice who grinned under his mask like it was Nightmare Night. "Unfortunately, a fire broke out during the night and, lo and behold, the report turned to ash! Along with all the records. Unfortunately."

"Excellent everypony!" She grinned too.

"Are we ready to leave, then?" Lord Stalwart pointed anxiously at the door, but Silent Wind calmed him with a hoof and professional demeanor.

"Almost. You were looking for that thing… You can afford a few minutes for your own safety. One of my partners needs to check back in. He's making sure that we can reach the airdock and that the militia isn't in the way. If I understood it correctly, we may already be too late and there is one heck of a Justiciar zeroing in on you. But we gotta try, right?"

"I am most certainly not paying you if we are caught!"

"Dude…" She grinned. "If we're caught the that Justiciar is going to rip you a new one large enough to pass Princess Celestia's new airship through it. Paying me will be the least of your worries."

"You know, you're not really helping." His secretary gave her a cute angry look.

"Ah, chill. She's not going to catch us. I got a reputation to keep. Besides, remember my ponies tipped her off in the wrong way. She thinks you're leaving by train."

"Oh! Yes!" He grinned a little calmer. "You sent Miss Rainy to book a ticket in my name! I asked for first class, for the sake of credibility. By the way, Rainy, did you deliver the letters?"

"Yes sir!" She chirped and Silent Wind grimaced.

"Wait! What letters?!" The batpony had a mini-heart attack just then.

"Oh… Uh…" The unicorn coughed. "Nothing important. I simply saw myself forced to inform a few friends of my departure."

Great… Just great. Silent Wind started regretting taking that job.

Then the door to the outside opened and closed. Another earth pony in a balaclava and cloak stopped next to the first, this one green. "Way's ready to go, boss! Goldies are on their way though. We gotta go now!"

"Oh no! The Royal Guard?!" Whoosh could've sworn that Lord Stalwart almost turned white.

"What did you expect?" The first earth pony chuckled at his reaction. "Bro, you sole from the crown, didn't ya?"

"Alright, enough chatter. Let's go." Too late to jump off the boat now. "The back door as we do, everypony keep quiet and don't let stuff jingle. Keep low and keep your muzzles shut. If the Guards find us, don't panic. They may not be the ones looking for us. Just let me talk."

The group followed her trough the mansion devoid of its servantry straight through the kitchen to the pantry to the back door that opened to the large open area for receiving household supplies in the back yard, before the tennis yard and the pool. The ponies rushed past everything, following the thestral's lead until a place in the living fence where there was a hidden hole one of the earth ponies held open for them. The first to pass was Whoosh, followed by her charge and the secretary, followed by the others to the neighbors' yard.

A pair of unicorns stared at them. The male, white and blue with a monocle over his right eye was a career politician and he held an unlit cigar in his mouth while he held a lighter in his telekinesis. Next to him, his wife a female rosé and blonde unicorn froze mid-bite on a sandwich while another unicorn male, green and greener, worked a griddle where he seemed to be making another sandwich next to yet another unicorn, his wife who was yellow and pink of mane. Both lawyers. All of four of them very influential and important ponies in the Canterlot social and political environment.

Just his luck.

While the 'professional' ponies ignored them, Lord Stalwart gave them his best 'definitively not panicking' smile and saluted with a hoof, never stopping on his way and unable to keep a nervous chuckle from bubbling up. "Evening, Master Gourd. Ah. Wonderful evening for an outdoor snack. Don't mind us. We're just… Uh… Playing a game. You know… Live Action Role Playing. Later!"

Going past another hole in the living fence they reached the streets and Lord Stalwart swiped at the sweat on his forehead. "Goodness, I am never going to recover from this."

His secretary patted his shoulder. "I am so glad you are with me, Miss Rainy. I simply do not know what I would do without you."

"Nah, it'll be alright." Silent Wind looked one way and another. The way seemed clear. "It's cool. We'll mosey to the other side and then down the street. Left in the balcony park and into the sewers. Then we go straight to the exit of Windyrow Street. Go around the building and into the service area, straight to your airship's hangar. It should be ready to go with the crew waiting."

"Come on, uncle." One of the earth ponies pushed him lightly. "You're making a scene and we're not getting paid till you gone in that airship."

"I'll scout on ahead." Silent Wind told them. "Keep'em moving boys."

She rushed ahead, and the others made the 'clients' move. The street was empty and mostly silent and dark. It was a rich area and the lamps were kept lit, but either way nopony was there to bother them. At least they made it to the corner where Whoosh waited for them and looked past the corner.

"Horseapples… The balcony is full. We need a distraction. Slick, you're on it!"

"Yes ma'am!" One of the earth ponies, with a little too much excitement removed his cloak and his balaclava revealing an orange earth pony with a blonde mane he adjusted with a swipe of his head. Determined orange eyes set forward. Stalwart wished he had had that level of enthusiasm in his recruits in his early years as Lord Protector of Canterlot. "See you guys latter!"

With that he galloped towards the balcony. It was one of the leisure areas in the capital were ponies would sit in a plaza with food carts (refined gourmet, not to mention vogueish food carts were all the rage in Canterlot, if one wasn't in the mood for one of its many restaurants) and some street performers (well dressed, prim and proper as must everything be in Canterlot). Most of the ponies in the plaza though were rich residents of the neighborhood, some of which Stalwart recognized and he cringed a little knowing that they would recognize him too.

But to his surprise Miss Wind's pony stopped galloping just short of drawing attentions to himself and took a deep breath. His shoulders slumped, his ears fell, and he held his head low while approaching the plaza from that point onward. He drew the attention of some ponies, mostly the rich unicorns of the area, but they kept to their glasses and food, talking to each other, casually watching the sad pony approaching.

Then he bumped into one of the richest looking unicorn mares and caused her to spill her wine all over her pretty dress. She gasped with the greatest degree of indignation, as one usually did in Canterlot.

"Sir! What manner of-" She began, but the pony Slick interrupted her with the most hurtful of whines.

"No! It is not worth it ma'am! There is nothing you can do!"

"What?" She took a step back, more than confused and other curious ponies around the area congregated around them.

"It is not worth it ma'am!" He wailed again holding hooves to his eyes. "She's left me and there is nothing more for me in this cruel, cruel world!"

"What? You cannot mean! Sir! Wait a minute!" One of the rich stallions, one of those nice and upstanding ones wearing an aqua polo shirt standing around seemed legitimately worried while the other ponies simply seemed distressed. He held Slick's shoulders. "Whatever has happened, there is no logic in-"

"No!" He freed himself with a dramatic flourish. "It is over! She was everything!"

Before he could do the next step in his routine, the 'I'm gonna jump run', the same unicorn held his mane with his magic. "Sir, please try and calm down. This is most unnecessary and unbecoming."

One of the mares, a yellow and lime unicorn with a frilly dress approached, holding a tall glass in her telekinesis and giggling friendly. "Indeed. We will keep you company, and you will tell us what happened. I will pay you a dinner! How about that?"

From the corner of the street Whoosh showed her little fangs in a large grin. That never failed! Most of them might be self-absorbed plotholes, but as soon as they realized that things were _bad,_ they would wise up and earnestly try to help. In their own way, but still. Understanding how ponies and their heads worked was the most important part of her job sometimes.

She simply gestured to her companions the way while ponies in the plaza laughed and kept their attention on the 'sad' earth pony and the unicorns convincing him to share a meal. Nopony noticed they slipped by close to the back walls of the mansion and russhed into the street as though nothing had happened.

Fortunately, their guide knew where she was going because Lord Stalwart had no idea they were supposed to enter the small and unassuming door by the large wall in the mountain side. It was a decorated archway flanking a simple metal door with a padlock which proved to be no match to Silent Wind's lockpicking skills.

He simply stared in awe while she grabbed her kit from under her cloak, dealt with the thing and carefully replaced it to safety. He figured he really ought to invest in quality magical locks for his mansion. If he ever managed to have one in Canterlot, that was.

Past the door, they went down a flight of stone stairs and the smell soon became unpleasant to say the least.

"Eeew." His secretary took a leg to her muzzle. "What's this smell?"

"The Canterlot sewers… Ma'am…" The remaining earth pony replied with all the sarcasm the situation required.

"Well, excuse me, sir. I typically do not wallow in the sewers. Canterlot's or otherwise!"

Ah, Miss Rainy. Don't ever change… At least she gave her employer a reason to smile in this whole awful situation.

Not much further down the stairs they reached the main. At least it had two passageways by the sides and little bridges every now and then. But most important, there were little rubber boots Whoosh's associates had stashed for them. Stalwart took a second to shiver at the absolute horror that would be stepping in something nasty in there with his bare hooves.

"Come on." Silent Wind encouraged them. "Soon the worst will be behind, and you'll be in your fancy airship."

Oh yes. That would make it all worth it. It was simply a shame that Miss Rainy couldn't go with him, though. He could use her company in the travel.

Regardless, fortunately the travel through the sewers was a long, tortuous, dark, damp, smelly and wholly unpleasant; but it fortunately was also uneventful. None of the monsters said to dwell in the sewer showed themselves.

Exiting was the same as entering, but fortunately Miss Wind had thought ahead before their departure and the door was open for them. That was why it was worth it to pay extra for good professionals. He couldn't imagine the agony that retracing their steps through the sewers would be.

Coming out the sewer access they were in another of the typical Canterlot streets in the rich area, with public illumination and fortunately without witnesses and mostly closed stores.

They could already see the illuminated front of the private airdocks ahead of them, with its big and welcoming glass behind golden stylish bars doors closed. And two local militiaponies walking in front of them. The group stopped before they would be too close.

"It should be fine." Whoosh quietly assured her client. "It's just a patrol. They'll be leaving. They don't know what we're doing."

Some time passed with the ponies making themselves the least visible possible in the illuminated street, hiding the best that was possible behind a bench. But the guards didn't move for ages until, finally, one of the two unicorns in leather barding elbowed the other.

"Hey. I gotta take a leak. Be right back."

"Cool."

He left without much hurry and his partner stayed relaxed, sitting in front of the glass doors, casually looking around. Silent Wind's patience started to drain as much as her client's anxiety grew.

Then the guard coughed and snorted before he started 'singing'. "Pam pa ram pam pam pa ram..."

"Oh, hay no!" The thestral cursed under her breath and promptly started walking towards the guard so nonchalantly Stalwart thought that everything was lost.

"Ma'am." The guard stared distractingly at her, at first, but them frowned. "Strange outfit out in the streets, ma'am."

She simply drew a black truncheon and hit him over the head with that. "No! Bad pony!"

"Ow! What?" He tried protecting his head, but she was relentless. "Let me guess, somepony stole your sweet roll? Ow!"

"Stop! Don't ever do that again!" She raged.

"You know, I used to be an adventurer…" She screeched before he could go on, hitting him as fast as she could and finally knocked unconscious. The other ponies approached the very miffed looking Miss Silent Wind while she stashed her weapon under her cape.

"Was that really necessary?" Miss Rainy glowered at the bat pony.

"Let's go! That was too much of a racket for my tastes!" Was all she said.

They obeyed the angry batpony and fortunately the other guard never returned until they found the service entrance. It was a large metal gate closed with a large padlock and a chain, but she had as little trouble opening it as she had done before.

They were close now, and soon it would be over.

They quickly traversed the large patio behind the docks with the large cargo doors and Whoosh pointed at one of them. "There. Number six! We made it!"

She had a huge smile on her face, opening up the door when the magical lights came on. There was some fanfare, two Royal Guards threw up confetti. The beautiful white and blue airship was tethered to its dock with magical chains sealed by the Royal Guard and the crew was nowhere to be seen. Worse, there was a smug looking Justiciar unicorn sitting in between Princess Celestia and the freaking Changeling Queen. The princess applauded happily, and the queen blew a party horn.

Not to mention a whole selection of Royal Guards and black carapace changelings around the hangar with expressions that ranged from professionally stoical and smug grins.

"What the actual fudge?" The batpony blinked her unbelieving golden eyes.

"You are under arrest, Lord Stalwart Star…" Said Golden Rule with an even smugger grin. "For attempting to evade the Royal Guard and under severe suspicion of stealing resources from the Crown, obscuring administrative impropriety, conspiracy, blackmailing, prevarication and all the vain horseapples you stupid motherbuckers do when you think you are untouchable."

He didn't answer. Instead he had resigned to his fate with dignity. At least he had tried. With some luck, his associates would take the necessary precautions and this mess would blow even more out of proportion. All he wanted was some more money.

"What… What is Queen Chrysalis doing here?" Silent Wind was still more confused than worried while the others were still confused or in denial.

"She is here to commemorate the first successful operation by the first changeling Justiciar!" Celestia chimed infuriatingly happily.

Then green magic flame enveloped the secretary and she turned to a cheerful aqua and cyan changeling wearing the red robe and golden chain of the Justiciars and tap-dancing madly while spinning and squealing. "I did it!"

"Oh, for crying out loud!" The batpony facehoofed while the Lord Protector seemed to have accepted his fate with numb surrender.

"We arrested Miss Rainy Sky with the letters you sent her to deliver to your partners, Lord Stalwart Star." Celestia said calmly. "She tried to protect your honor as far as she could. Please don't be angry at her. And I am afraid that you have forfeited your freedom as well as your position though."

"With all due respect, Princess. I don't want your pity." He hardened his stare, but hers remained as calm and patient as always. He meant to say more, but words failed him.

"You don't have to explain yourself, Lord Star." She did pity him regardless. "I know of countless reasons ponies do what you and your cohorts attempted. None of them try for the right reason, and it is something that is beyond your ability to help yourself. Still, I don't take it personally."

Silent Wind didn't like the way she spoke as though she knew more than she let on, but it was not like she felt asking questions right there. She sighed and resigned to being arrested. It happened every now and then. But her partner earth pony stepped back and pulled a pistol from his cloak.

"Screw this." He said and promptly pointed his gun at the old unicorn. "You talk too much, Celestia."

Everyone froze. The queen changed from happy to a deathly stare and the princess looked sad. He didn't like making an old lady sad but screw her and her millennia of sitting her flank in the throne. Whoosh screamed and jumped back. The two Justiciars hardened their stares. He actually had to see it, or he couldn't have figured out one of those new cutesy healed changelings looking angry. Well, the black changelings and guards didn't like it either that he had just pulled a gun out and tensed up, staring seriously at him. Good.

"Nopony do anything or uncle's getting shot in the head." The unicorn actually looked angry now. "Any horns start glowing and I pull the lever. Don't dare me, I'll do it!"

"Schlick!" Silent Wind screeched. "What the hay?!"

Right on cue, his pals came into view. Six earth ponies promptly standing with their muskets on hooves by the cargo door and two pegasi came flying in the airdock's outer door, also carrying guns. Others came from the administrative area offices, unicorns and earth ponies, also armed with pistols and surrounded the group while that dumbass Celestia asked nopony to do anything.

"No no no no! This is dumb! Really, really dumb! Put that down, Schlick!" Silent Wind barely screamed. "It's just a botched job! Nopony needs to die for this!"

"Sorry, Whoosh. This thing is huge, like a pile of manure the size of Mount Canterlot huge, and you got screwed big time. Should've picked up the princesses job."

"My little ponies, how do you think that this is going to end?" Seriously, her sad voice was pissing him off. "I beg you to surrender these weapons and turn yourselves in to the Madam Justiciar and I can guarantee your safety. You'll be hurt unnecessarily."

"Shut the hay up, princess." Screw that annoying way of hers of talking to them like they were foals. "Some ponies with a lot of power are really tired of staring at your dumb face. What is going to happen…"

"Shut up, you moron." Lord Stalwart told him, but he approached Lord Stalwart and pushed the point of the gun on the side of his head.

"Is that I'm going to prance my way out of here with the old fart and my guys are coming with me all the way to bay three where our airship is waiting to leave with us. Nice and easy, and nopony gets hurt."

Not a second later Chrysalis took a step forward looking like she was ready to murder someone and her horn flared up with green changeling magic like she was about to conjure up a storm. "I'm not Celestia for you to fuck around with, peasant."

Before he had even processed what she said he screamed when his leg holding the pistol shone in green and every kind of pain possible shot through it just as her magic pulled it up at an angle it should not be put on. His pistol flew somewhere, and shots banged in all directions.

Silent Wind squealed and dropped to the floor covering her face with her legs. Lord Stalwart did the same, sans squealing, and not only the changeling Justiciar jumped on top of him, but a golden magical shield manifested around him.

The two closest Royal Guards jumped at Celestia and drew their own pistols, shooting at the earth ponies by the door while the others rushed for cover. Two of them dropped, hit by the stunning magic crystal balls.

Inside the hangar it was a mess. Royal Guards and changelings jumped at the 'criminal scum' with magical subduing batons and spells as soon as the weapons were spent. Turned out their armor, natural or otherwise, did protect them. The changeling Justiciar clung to Lord Stalwart like she was a possessive cat staring evilly at anyone that approached the shield, and her colleague used her horn to shoot magic at the fighting ponies and encasing them in small golden cages while she herself protected herself with a magical shield.

In the middle of the chaos Princess Celestia turned one way and another. "Everypony, please calm down. This really isn't necessary!"

Iron ball shots bounced off Chrysalis's carapace and mildly inconvenienced her other than simply pissing her off. Wondering who in all of creation would be brain-dead enough to shoot those noisy and irritating 'guns' at her she turned to the two pegasi hovering by the skydoor ready to drop their weapons and fly away.

Out of several spells that would outright kill, maim or disintegrate them, she was going to rip their wings off and shove them down their mouths for their impudence, but Celestia was looking and she was in enough trouble as it was. Instead she groaned in the middle of the fight and slammed the two together. Then she threw them on the hangar's floor. She was afraid that if she did anything other, she might end up killing them because they could drop from the mountain. Hopefully, her soldiers would remember to preferably not kill or maim anyone.

The fight turned to a next level of chaos with shouting and more shooting when more weapons were drawn until things began solving themselves with Royal Guards and changelings subduing the others. Silent Wind sighed to herself, tied up with that weird changeling goop. All she wanted was an easy retirement.

The remaining earth ponies by the cargo door realized that indeed things didn't go the way they thought they would, even if some guards and changeling were injured, and bolted. With her blood pumping and instincts rearing, Chrysalis shot forward, but she stopped when Celestia called her. For some reason the mare stared up with her horn alight. "Don't bother. The Local Militia will find them. Kindly ensure that Miss Golden Rule takes these ponies into custody and that nopony else is injured."

Then she jumped up and flew through a small skylight, closing her wings through it.

"Celestia?" Her eyebrow rose with confusion.

Grufnor had stood the whole day hiding under the blue blanket, the same color the ceiling was. That wasn't a problem, as he was used to standing still, quiet as a predator should be. He had his new bolt action rifle, comfortably snuggled under him, he had eaten enough, and he had taken care of his physiological needs. The only thing that bothered him was the cursed heat in the pony lands.

But he remained quiet and calm. His mind slipped into a meditative state between awareness and sleep but roused when he heard movement and talking inside the hangar. The small skylight allowed him ample vision within the building, and he could see the golden armored guards talking to the airship's crew. Making arrests and their unicorns magically tethering the airship to its dock.

Things wouldn't go the way the old corrupt unicorn had imagined. He cared little for where things had gone awry, all that mattered was that the unicorn preferably left Canterlot and then reached safety in Snow Mountains, or that he was dead and couldn't talk more than his life was worth.

Should the ponies he hired fail, his trusty rifle would ensure that he wouldn't talk. Always have alternatives… Part of his training.

His internal clock said it would soon be night, if the infernal princesses kept to their routine and soon would be time to act. So, he laid still, hidden under the blanket and watched over the hangar for the time.

Hours later, after the Princess and the Queen had arrived and prepared the small meeting the Lord Protector arrived with his escort. Grufnor remained quiet until tensions rose and then he readied his weapon, loading it and shouldering the stock.

As he had anticipated, as soon as violence began the Justiciars protected his target. The queen dealt with some of their enemies, the whole fight was an ugly brawl and in the middle of it all Celestia kept trying to talk to them like an imbecile. After the earth ponies by the door ran, the Justiciar dropped her shield and the old unicorn was exposed. So predictable.

He stared down the sight and lined his shot at the base of the horn. It was a pathetically short range and from above. A cub could have made it with minimal training.

But when he pulled the trigger, it clicked, and nothing happened. He frowned and looked at his weapon. Pulled back the bolt to see the chamber empty and the bullet floating in front of his face, encased in golden light.

He cursed under his breath and looked back down. The changeling queen talked to Celestia and the cursed white alicorn stared directly at him.

He cursed aloud this time. "Damnation!"

He slung his gun behind his back and threw the blanket jumping up and flapping his wings, immediately flying towards his previously stablished escape route, the nearest building, one of the many towers in Canterlot. He grinned to himself for an instant. Not very likely that the changeling whore and her mosquito wings could chase him, much less cake-hole extraordinaire.

He spun mid-flight, drawing his revolver from under his coat and just as soon as he saw movement out the skylight, he shot at it. Didn't stop to look though. He made a sharp turn at the tower and propelled himself to an L turn behind it. Then he looked at what he had shot at, expecting to see a bleeding white thing collapsed on the blue floor. Instead golden lightning blinded him with a thunderous clap that broke every single window in the vicinity. The tower exploded with brick and mortar shrapnel and threw him off balance in his flight.

Next thing he knew, he crashed against something hard that buckled on impact. Ponies screamed and scrambled out of his way and he jumped with a flap of his wings next to hold at the paving stone with his claws. Flared wings ready to jump at his opponent.

To his left a closed store with scared ponies in front of its windows. To his right the outside tables of the restaurant he just crashed into, more scared ponies staring at him from the broken window and behind it.

Before he thought of looking up, he heard her. "Up here, hairball."

She hovered above the semi destroyed tower and blew a raspberry at him. Curse that insufferable devil. And not a moment too late, Royal Guards started arriving and closing off the street while the pegasi circled above.

He didn't think twice. He jumped, grabbed the closest pony, a yellow unicorn with short red mane. The others cried and distanced themselves, but the guards remained calm. He pointed his revolver at the pony's head. "Let me go or you're losing this one."

"Joke is on you, griffon." She yelled from up there. "I don't actually like this one! He writes horrible slander pieces about me in his newspaper, cheats on his wife and thinks nopony knows he has a life-size plushie of one of Twilight's friends."

Before he could react, the pony could decide if he was scared or angry and the others remembered they were in danger after giggling, she spoke again. "Let him go and I can guarantee you will not be injured. None of this is necessary and will only end with you hurt."

He shook his head, more angry than intimidated. "That is not how this works, Princess! Call off your guards and beat it or this is going to get too ugly for your ponies."

She actually changed her expression and he knew he had struck a nerve. He knew she was bluffing. Then she spoke again. "Well, since you're so tough, why don't you fight me instead of hiding behind scared ponies and I will show you how I killed thousands of your ancestors and put a scar so deep in your racial memory that your ilk thinks eating sugar is a sin."

A trained and experienced, loyal killer such as him should be above insults and not fall for such petty trickery. But there were moments when unleashing one's fury was warranted, and that was one such moment. His face burned, and the surrounding ponies gasped at whatever expression he made. He pointed his weapon at the princess, but before he pulled the trigger one of the unicorns pulled his paw and the bullet hit nothing but the ceiling. Ponies cried and he threw the unicorn at the approaching earth pony guards and pushed past the pegasi coming from above in one mighty flap of his wings. He thought one of the unicorn guards tried to hit him with a stun spell, but he was so furious he barely felt it and the only thing he saw right them was the white alicorn that he wanted to rip apart into a flurry of blood and feathers.

He recognized anger in her stare, but he wasn't afraid of it and in a way, it was good to see that she could feel such a thing. He reached for her neck with his left paw with the right one ready to rip into her flesh, but her horn shone like the day itself and he could swear he collided a stone wall. A searing hot one. He didn't even feel the pain until he realized he had been flung across the ceilings. He flared his wings and stopped to a hover, his wings burned with pain and when he reached for his other handgun, his paw was gone.

He didn't really understand what had happened, but movement drew his attention and he looked forward again to see the alicorn flying towards him and arching above. Then her horn shone again.

Fancypants and his wife enjoyed a nice dinner in an exciting but exclusive restaurant a friend of his had just opened. Actually, it was one of those quaint food carts with tables surrounding it that popped up everywhere in Canterlot, but that worked wonders. He had claimed one of the leisure areas close to the edge, but not quite a balcony with their uncomfortable winds. It was well illuminated, and a few artists performed nearby with happy music. A few ponies occupied nearby tables, minding their own food and conversations. Such a pleasurable night to be out with his lovely wife.

Then the night turned into day in a flash, his horn itched like it was on fire, something exploded nearby, and something fell of the sky right into his friend's food cart, which in turn exploded too and showered vegetables, sauces, all sorts of toppings and crepe dough everywhere. Ponies hid under the tables or ran as far as they could while still being able to curiously stare from afar at what might have happened.

Fancypants hugged his wife under the table and wouldn't leave her side for all the anything in the world.

A griffon almost rose from the mess but tumbled and rolled on his side. His dark brown fur was covered in red tomato sauce and it spread all over the floor. Yes, that was what it was and nopony could tell Fancypants otherwise. The griffon kept one of his paws close to his body and had trouble breathing. He tried to stand but his hindlegs seemed to have no strength. He collapsed and coughed painfully.

"Sweet Celestia!" Fancypants' friend squealed, closest to the griffon and reaching to help.

"Back!" The griffon barked and caused ponies to scream and cower where they were. He had probably swallowed a large quantity of tomato sauce because he coughed a lot of it, and it spilt from his beak. He barely seemed able to breath and it was agonizing to watch.

Then Princess Celestia arrived, landing softly in the paving stone and the first thing she did was look around the place, then she focused on the griffon again. "You had ample opportunity to surrender and spare yourself and others of this whole ordeal. Now look at your beautiful body… It is broken and struggling to keep alive."

That moment was when Fancypants realized that there was one thing that griffons could do that ponies couldn't, and it was giving another 'the finger'. To make such a rude gesture to Princess Celestia though!

She didn't seem to take offense, however. At least she spoke calmly. "So much for the big scary predator. You think yourselves so powerful, but you are so fragile. And look at this thing."

She held his riffle in her telekinetic magic and examined it messing around with its action like it was a toy. "First you used your claws, then sticks. Sticks made of bronze, and then of iron. Sticks made of steel. Sticks that shoot. What will be next? Weapons capable of massive damage and killing hundreds in the shortest time possible? These things have no place in modern Equestria and I am quite done with your muskets and whatnot that you managed to infect my ponies with. And you still miss the point of your whole existence for some silly ideology that you don't need."

"Will you just shut your mouth and kill me already?" It surprised the pony and the griffon that he didn't breathe with any difficulty anymore. He even tried standing but couldn't. Didn't seem to be in pain anymore, but certainly looked confused. "What are you…?"

His left paw touched his chest and there was a place in his clothes that was charred around a sizeable hole. But his body seemed fine. The griffon started to panic but couldn't move anymore.

"Did you think that you would expire? That your friends would think of you and sing of what a great martyr you were? That one that fought the… What are they calling me these days? Something silly like the Dawnbringer?" She grinned at him, walking closer. "No, you are not going to expire. We will extirpate the poison they put on your heart. You will go back to being a nice griffon and when you will think back to this night you will regret all the silly decisions that took you to their side. You will mate to another nice griffon and you will teach your cubs of the mistakes you have made so that they would never fall in the same traps you did. Because, like it or not, you are a part of us."

The Princess must have been very angry with that griffon, and considering his demeanor and weapons, Fancypants could imagine why. But then she did something he didn't expect. She talked to him again, but in that language, he had heard about the griffons in the far north speaking to themselves. She loomed over him and approached him even more, speaking slowly and she grinned in her typical mischievous way, but the griffon seemed mortified. She must have said something about their hunting… Thing.

Some moments later the Royal Guard pegasi started arriving. None of them seemed to be her lieutenant, but one female of white coat and red and white mane approached her with very annoyed blue eyes. "Princess, you would make our job much easier if you would let us deal with the griffon terrorists. Thank you."

"I am sorry, corporal. But I was afraid his target might have been gravely injured if I hadn't intervened. Has Miss Golden Rule taken the other to the Guard's quarters?"

"Yes, princess."

"Kindly take this griffon to the palace's clinic and ask that he is taken care of. He shouldn't need to be restrained. And ask that Miss Grenda prepare him a nice griffon meal. He is probably hungry, and some nice food will do him well. I should talk to these ponies and assure them that everything is under control."

Cadance woke suddenly. She was literally standing in the middle of a nice and peaceful grassy field with colorful flowers here and there. Simply standing there, under a clear blue sky with the nice sun above giving her some nice warm feelings. Simply standing there, as though existence simply started at that precise moment and there was nothing before it. Still, she felt anxious, her heart pounded and there was this strange ephemeral fear that vanished as soon as she tried focusing on it.

"Huh…" She scratched her head. "This is weird."

She looked around and saw nothing more than the calming flowery field covering the uneven ground. Finally, she saw her. The friendly blue alicorn laying over her legs on a rock that seemed out of place in the scenario and like she put it there herself.

"Hello Cadance." She smiled.

"Luna. Oh. I'm dreaming." Realization came as suddenly as the weird sensation that something wasn't quite right returned. She felt like she needed to remember something important but whatever it was, it had evanesced from her mind like steam in a hot bath "What happened? I feel weird."

"A nightmare." The other spoke calmly.

"But… I'm just standing here." She argued. "I don't remember anything."

"I made this place. It doesn't really exist. I needed a 'when' and 'where' to situate your mind since I shut down the entire mental state you found yourself in previously, and then erased the recollection of the nightmare from your mind. Your autonomous nervous system just needs some time to return to baseline and you should feel perfectly fine soon. You should be able to remember things from before you went to sleep and this weird sensation you're getting right now is how your mind perceives the break in continuity."

"This is one of the weirdest things anypony has ever told me." She blurted out with a weirded-out expression. At the same time, she was sure she was forgetting something incredibly important. "Can't you tell me what the nightmare was about?"

"Well, telling you about it right after erasing it from recollection would be counterproductive, wouldn't it?" Luna smirked.

"Is this normal? I mean, I didn't even realize I was dreaming. I just… Happened here. Can you do this? Just hijack my mind and do whatever you want with me? I mean… I only know this is a dream because you told me!"

Luna grinned mischievously. "Have you ever questioned the nature of your reality?"

"What was that supposed to mean?" She whined at the blue alicorn. "Actually, I do, by the way, but right now I feel like I'm still having a nightmare and it's about you, torturing me with your dream powers!"

Luna giggled and spoke excitedly. "I'm sorry, Cadance. It doesn't mean anything. It's a quote from a really interesting story Chocolate Velvet told me! I'll leave you and your mind should pick up again from a safer state than you were before."

"Wait! I need to talk to you!" Cadance put out a hoof.

Luna's ears fell. "I am sorry Cadance. Chocolate Velvet told me you called for _parley_. And I wanted to talk to you too. I wanted to apologize… Legitimately. But I can't… I'm extraordinarily busy this night."

"Oh…" Cadance sighed and her ears fell too.

"But I will meet you again in your dreams in the next opportunity. I promise." She winked and then vanished, evanescing in a sparkling shower of stars.

Cadance hummed to herself and looked around. Something didn't seem to be right: she was still there, and alone. She didn't even feel sleepy or something. Actually, everything seemed to have stopped. The subtle breeze didn't move the small plants anymore. The smells were gone.

"Odd. Maybe Luna really is having a lot of trouble tonight…"

She hoofed at the ground and waited patiently. The sound was weird and the feeling of digging in the ground was numb. Distant. She heard something, an undefined sound and her chest stung.

"Ow! Something definitively isn't right." She told herself, looking around and seeing only the endless field of grass and flowers. Her hoof massaged her chest, but the pain didn't go away. Distant and muffled, undefined sounds floated around her.

_They made a mockery of my Gift._

"Huh… Weird. What a strange idea." Then, just as suddenly the world darkened around her.

A pony whispered in the dark and Cadance couldn't see where they were. The voice was distant and muffled, as though they tried to speak through a door. She smelled burnt meat though. It almost made her heave and she covered her mouth with a hoof.

"What? Ow!" On top of it all, her chest hurt as though a nasty bug had stung her and she rubbed it. "What was that? Hello?"

Cadance woke suddenly. She was not in her bed, but in a strange cave made of soft pink light and she stood on a small platform made of white light that separated her from a water-like liquid underneath her, all pink. Like liquid pink light.

"Hum… Luna?" She moved her ears around and heard only a soft chiming and soft clinking when she fidgeted in place and her hooves reconnected with the 'ground'.

More pressing though was the fact she saw a large pink crystal structure in front of her, several hooves away. A crystal mountain where a crystal staircase spiraled around until it reached a multitowered palace at the top. Everything made of the same light pink crystal.

"So, I guess this is a real dream? Should I explore a bit? Luna?"

She heard no answer. Only the soft sloshing of whatever it was underneath her.

She tested the floor with her hooves, and she could step outside of her little light platform. Her hoofsteps clinked while she walked, and she stared up at the palace. That place, for some reason she couldn't fully understand felt like it was important. She figured she should be mindful of this place where she had found herself and decided against flying. Again, not entirely sure why, but she shouldn't fly.

_This is sacrosanct ground._

So, she didn't. She drew closer with each step and there was a strange foreboding sensation that permeated every step, but she felt compelled to move forward. She felt like she was coming home from a long journey.

By the time she reached the first degree, she didn't know how long she had remained in there already, but for some reason it felt like an eternity had passed and with each step she took up the stairs she was compelled to take the next. Each step easier than the last until she was at the balcony the stairs led up to.

The floor had a beautiful embroidered design etched into the crystal and from every angle it led up to the massive doors. Double doors in opaque white crystal dominated by a stained-glass mosaic of her cutie mark.

"Where am I?" She knew the answer in a strange way as though she should know the answer, but it only came to her after searching for it.

_I am home._

"But I live in the Crystal Empire…"

_This is my Home._

She stared down, confused for a second, before looking up the doors again. "Should I go in?"

_This is my Home. I should go wherever I want in here._

The doors opened to her when the mosaic of her cutie mark vanished. They chimed, as though they were magical, pure magic by nature. Beyond them she saw a long corridor, that opened in a room on the other side.

Something called her. Not with words, but she was compelled to enter.

She galloped inside but stopped just as soon as she entered the corridor. Her chest stung and she stopped taking her hoof to her chest with a pained squeak. "What sort of dream is this? Maybe I shouldn't be here and… And…"

_I should be here. This is my Home._

She took a few deep breaths and tried walking again. This time her chest felt like it had ben punctured with a knife or something. She had never been actually hurt so, but it sure felt like it. She cried and collapsed on her side. Confused, she stared at her hooves and for an instant she thought she saw blood, but darkness enveloped her.

Darkness all around her, Cadance could hear a pony whispering.

"What? Where are you? Hello?"

Magical explosions, laughing ponies. Crying ponies. Spells hurtled everywhere. She couldn't see anything but bright blurs, like fires beyond a fog. Clashing of metal and its clinking against stone. The smell of burning wood blew over her, hot and dry.

"They will destroy the Farmland Gate!" Somepony cried in near panic. "They will let in the Lost Herd and they will swarm the city much sooner than we expected!"

_Stop! You are hurting them!_

"Help!" Somepony she couldn't see pleaded behind the dark with a distant and fading voice.

Then she cried and doubled over at the sharp pain in her chest. Like something had just teared a piece of her out. She cried again. It hurt so much.

Cadance woke suddenly. She still found herself in the same corridor she was before with the memories of her strange vision and the pain in her chest. Her cheeks were wet and her eyes stung.

She cringed and held her hoof to her chest, over her heart, but saw no blood when she looked. "Ow… What is happening? Luna?"

She heard no answer. Was she trapped inside a bizarre nightmare not even Luna could get her out of? Fear began creeping into her voice and her throat tightened. "Luna, help me!"

_I must know. My fractured mind depends on this and the Queen of Nightly Visions will not give me assistance. The veil must be lifted as hurtful and harmful as it may be. I must know._

Her attention was drawn further down the corridor. It opened in a room and there was something in the middle. She heard a crystal crackling and echoing in the corridor and her ears homed in on it.

"The Tree of Harmony?" She craned her head and immediately started walking towards it, forgetting her fear and tears.

Her attention was immediately directed to the top of the tree where the branches formed a crown holding a beautifully crafted and large jewel made to the likeness of her cutie mark.

Maybe it was her curiosity, but her pain was gone, and that thing commanded all her attention. It looked beautiful. The Crystal Heart looked so real, a true multifaceted heart shaped crystal, just like the real thing and its golden frame seemed to be the purest gold in existence. The object ensorcelled her and she found herself unable to avert her eyes for several minutes.

Crystal crackled.

She took a step back. It certainly looked like the Tree of Harmony, but it wasn't. She could see the differences more clearly now. It was more like a branch of the Tree that sprouted from the crystal floor inside a neat and pretty small fence, as though that must be protected. Though it looked more like a six-armed scale, each of its arms holding a heavy lapidated gem. Beautiful, livid colors and mirror-like shine; they hung from the branches each at a different height.

Crystal crackled again and the purple gem raised with a sprinkle of crystal dust from its branch. They all shifted as the branches cracked and reformed like a living thing. The orange one lowered. And so, did the magenta one. The red rose furthest of them all, but so did the blue and the pink. The branches shifted too and the branch from the Tree of Harmony bent ever so slightly to one side.

"That is important. Isn't it?" She wondered softly and frowned just so. There was something she needed to remember. It was important too and had something to do with that… Thing. Whatever it was.

She turned to look at the rest of the room, drawn by soft light. Four doors occupied the room, and in their midst a stairwell led downwards. It was closed with a magical force field and she wondered what was down there, but her eyes were drawn to the first door to her left and behind her. It was tall, etched from the crystal wall with white magical lights. It was dominated by the image of Celestia's sun, shining in gold.

She frowned and shifted her head, looking to the next one to the right, towards the back of the room. It was the same but sealed with Luna's moon, all silver and black highlights.

She walked around the branches of the Tree of Harmony and stared down the stairwell to see nothing but a sinuous dark stairwell. Something worried her about it, but it was locked with a door-shaped magic field, blue with Luna's magic and sealed with her Cutie Mark.

The next door was no surprise and it showed her Crystal Heart etched on it. A quick glance showed the final door, adorned with Twilight's twin six-pointed star surrounded by five more.

She was drawn to the third door. She would say that she didn't know the reason, but it was obvious before it even became known to her.

_The Throne of Love. Before they could recognize they were even alive they must be made to reproduce, increase their numbers, and perpetuate their species or they will not be in sufficient numbers. It is a beautiful and romantic word for the base instinct and sexual desire that drives communion. It lacks context by itself and only within the whole is Harmony possible at all and that it should even be called 'Love'._

_As such it cannot be removed from the whole or put under restraint else the rest lose their places within their own frames of reference. Love is no more, and no less important than the rest of Creation._

The door opened as soon as her magic reached for it. The etched image lit up with her pink magic and the doors gave way effortlessly. The sound of muffled heartbeat came from all walls, floor and ceiling in tempo with a pink-reddish light that pulsated in the dimly lit room.

It illuminated with clear light as soon as she stepped in as tough it welcomed her. It was a simple square room with plain walls, floor and ceiling, nothing but a simple yet ornate and beautiful crystal altar in the back, as though it organically grew from the floor in front of a large, red and golden heart-shaped throne. The heart still beat around the room and pinkish light still flooded the room each time it did while she walked to inspect the table.

_It lies neglected after ages of shunning, but it still functions as the day I created it and it compels them to seek for those who will complement them in Harmony._

"This place needs something. Some pretty things here and there. It's too plain." She mumbled to herself walking towards the table and the throne.

An exquisitely crafted pony figurine sat in the middle. Shining Armor, on his fours and proudly wearing his Captain of the Guard barding. She smiled, circling the table and finally taking her seat on the heart shaped throne.

_Shining Armor. First and final love, as it should be. There could be no other, as ordained by Harmony itself. Left to its own designs the Throne of Love will fail in its fundamental task as it has become submitted to the whims of societal conventions and will attempt in vain to fulfill its imperative, lying to itself after each failure until it has shriveled and turned into a blasphemous abomination suffused with thorns and poison._

_I must watch them torture themselves with passions that will be forever unfulfilled and are changed for another and another amid the sharp edged shards of broken hearts until the pain is too much to bear and they learn to ignore it. Dulled memories of bright passions, one after the other subdued until the day they die at the end of an irrational parade of broken dreams. It is dangerous, for hatred is also the province of Love._

She looked around for a second. "Hum… I should see the other doors. Luna seems to be having a lot of trouble tonight."

She left the room and the Throne of Love closed its doors after she had left. She looked around again, seeing the other doors and the 'tree' in the middle.

"This is so weird. What are these doors supposed to be?"

She focused on the first door. The one where Celestia's sun shone all golden inside the light markings on the doors. "Is this supposed to be Princess Celestia's cutie mark?"

_The Throne of life. It is forbidden._

"Of course, I can't go in." She grunted.

Then she looked at the door right by its side. The one marked with Luna's moon.

_The Throne of the Mind. It is forbidden._

Cadance grunted loudly and to herself. "What about Twilight's?"

She walked over to the fourth door and looked up to the symbol of the stars. "Why are these things even here? Why are they here? What does this mean?"

_The Throne of Friendship. It is also forbidden._

She sat angrily on the crystal floor. "I guess I'm supposed to simply sit my flank here and wait for Luna to deal with this stupid dream!"

Cadance frowned a little and looked back at Luna's door. For a while, she simply stared, while her mind was occupied with thoughts about what could those doors mean. She knew that her magic could force ponies to fall in love with each other. Of course, she never meant to use it like that, but she could if she wanted. In essence, she had a doorway that would open to ponies' heart for her.

Is that what it meant? And that is why she could enter the Throne of Love but not the others?

_Forbidden does not mean it is inaccessible._

"Hay! If this is my Home, I should be able to go wherever I want!" She stood and walked over to Luna's door and stared angrily at it. Then she noticed it was open. Just barely.

Her magic didn't interact with it, however. But instead of letting that deter her, Cadance simply pulled the edge with her hoof. It was deceptively heavy, and she had to stand on her hind legs and pull with all her strength.

She managed though. Pulled at it until the heavy door budged and opened just enough for her to pass. She grinned triumphantly, but then restrained herself.

_I should be aware that not all in existence is meant to be seen, by mortal eyes or otherwise._

"Should I go in? It's forbidden. What if I see something that hurts me?" Her ears fell. "Discord said that there were things that could hurt us if we saw."

_The veil must be lifted. I must have answers and be made free to fulfill my Destiny._

She steeled herself with a brave expression and walked inside.

She expected another empty and plain square room. Instead she found a spacious and luxurious sitting room with a silver and blue sofa and some reading chairs. She spied the room with large eyes after blinking twice.

The wall on the right was covered in a long and clear mirror adorned with acid-imprinted images of the moon and stars at the top. The ceiling was cushioned with blue velvet and the corners accented in silver and black metal. The floor was crystal, but it had a blue hue to it and the light which pulsed in the Throne of Love was now white and traveled in pulses under the floor.

It was mesmerizing and beautiful.

But beyond the sitting area something beeped loudly and insistently. She also heard Princess Luna, very angrily growling at something.

She sat on a blue cushioned chair behind a series of magical images, not at all unlike the ones Cadance remembered from the entrance to Chrysalis' Spawning Pool. There were others that reminded her of the magical control panels for the teleporters spread along the walls in the back too. A magical alarm, the sort that would alert against somepony messing with a magical lock was what beeped, or at least something very similar.

"Ow!" Luna's horn sparked and she recoiled. "Stop that! I'm trying to help you stupid… Brain!"

Cadance simply stared unable to believe what she was seeing.

"For the love of Equestria! Stop this or I'm gonna have to fry you!" She frantically tapped with her hooves at one of the magical images with her hooves and grimaced with sweat on her face.

"What the…"

Was that really just a dream?

_This is no dream. It is a violation of the sanctity of my mind._

Luna squealed when another magical image started flashing red and a magical siren blared. She stared at it with a frown. "Huh? 'Sudo' what?"

"Luna!" Cadance called from the door and she finally looked up to see her on the door and coming inside, going around the furniture. Luna herself didn't seem to believe what she was seeing.

"No! No no no! This is not good! You can't be in here!" She jumped over the magical images but Cadance thought fast. She simply grabbed a hoof with her telekinetic magic and pulled on it. Luna cried and stumbled on the furniture to crash to the floor in panic. "Cadance! Stop! You'll hurt yourself!"

Simply walking around, while Luna fumbled about in the furniture, Cadance reached the chair Luna previously occupied. It was surrounded in magical images, indeed much like the ones the changeling doctor monitored in the entrance to Chrysalis Spawning Pool.

It had images that Cadance couldn't comprehend. It had symbols Cadance had never seen. It had text that looked more like the small letters and symbols the griffons used on their letters rather than the pony glyphs. It looked like a form of magical notation that moved on the images, incredibly long and complex magic.

Colored graphs moved up and down. Numbers soared and turned red. Her confusion only grew and her heart beat faster and faster, kicking at her chest. The air seemed insufficient. Her mind immediately returned to Chrysalis' laboratory. To her conversation with Luna and Chrysalis in the Bordello of Candy.

"Luna! What is this?" She looked up just in time for the other to hold her in her hooves and stare right at her, but she batted Luna away.

"Cadance! Calm down! Please! It is not what you think it is!"

"Did you… Make me like you made Chocolate Velvet?!" She stepped back, barely controlling her rage. Or fear. She wasn't sure which anymore and everything seemed the same.

"Why is there a…" She searched for a word in vain and her stressed mind came up with the best it could. "A control panel inside my head?! What are you doing?!"

Cadance's horn flared up with magic and she opened her wings, ready to throw herself at Luna that backed a few steps. "Start explaining things, Luna! Now!"

"For the love of all that is sacred! Stop and take a breath! This is not what you think it is! I swear! Think for a second! This is a nightmare! A particularly nasty one! You're imagining things Discord told you and trying to make sense of this place with what you know!"

_Deceiver!_

"Liar!" She cried and her magic surged, hitting Luna squarely in the chest with a powerful magic beam that caused her to reel and fall on her back with a wail. In an instant Cadance regretted what she'd done and jumped forward, reaching for her after letting her horn fizzle out. "Luna! I'm sorry! Please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to hit you!"

"I'm sorry Aunt Luna! Please forgive me! I'm just so… Scared!" She helped Luna stand and Luna sighed.

"Alright. Fine. We called this the Palace of the Self. It is a magical construct that exists inside a virtual space within the minds of every sentient being in Equestria. It's where what we are coalesces into a being, from soul, mind and body. Where we 'are'. And what you see is not exactly what it is. This is a mental image that allows our minds to understand some very complex and abstract concepts. When I enter your dreams my magic connects with this place from the outside and that allows me to sense what you are really feeling and why. That way I can actually help, because contrary to common beliefs, simply talking to a pony in a nightmare won't help. The mind is in a fractioned estate and under attack from a psychic monster. So, when you see me chasing away the problem my magic already joined your mind together, I understood the problem and expelled the Nightmare. Then I can talk to you and calm you down. Help you resolve the problem from within the narrative of your dream. It is much less intrusive that way."

Cadance was even more confused and a creeping headache in the middle of all that noise didn't help. "But, why are you here then? Why am I here?!"

"Coming here requires more energy, concentration and it is very intrusive, including to myself. I don't like violating ponies' and their privacy like this, but when things aren't working the way they should, it's the only way. From here I can see deeper. I can see the way your brain is functioning I can open your mind for me to examine and understand why you are doing and feeling what you are. I can see subconscious processes, your train of thoughts. And I can see that the reason you're going through this is because of the things Discord has told you. The things you've been seeing with Twilight. It's stirring parts of your mind that should he dormant."

She pointed at a magical image with a pony's head cut open with colorful 'clouds' all over it. It meant nothing to Cadance.

"No pony was ever meant to visit this place other than me, and I can't even begin to formulate a theory explaining how you are here. Maybe some part of my magic that got imprinted in your mind or something of the sort. All I know is that this is bad, like… Really bad and your mind is breaking down."

"Stop talking like I am machine! What are you doing to me?"

"You are a machine, Cadance." Luna frowned. "All of us are. Machines made of living tissues and magic. We are made of systems and systems have rules and rules can be learned and explored. I couldn't do my job if that wasn't so! I was given the key to ponies' mind or else I couldn't do my job! Doesn't that make sense?"

"Who did?"

"Whatever created us, Cadance! I don't know. Harmony! I don't even know why it is like this… Why this place even exists… It's probably a leftover of our creation. I just changed it over time, so that it would make things easier for me to do my job. Like I said, this isn't real… It is a mental representation of a magical construct. And this is not a control panel of some sort! This is a way for me to understand the workings of your mind and help you. I can't order you around with this like you were thinking."

"Why does it have doors with our cutie marks inside?" Cadance frowned and immediately bawled. She lost all her strength, her legs folded and her eyes teared again when the pain in her chest returned fiercer than before. She smelled burnt flesh and heard ghostly cries again. Her vision darkened and the only thing in her mind was that overwhelming pain. Luna seemed desperate though, torn between going to Cadance or to her seat.

Cadance saw a pony knelt in front of her. It was a young earth pony mare with radishes for cutie mark on her off-pink coat and with a light green mane she cut short. She said something, but Cadance couldn't make out what it was. She heard a roaring inferno burning amid screams of panicked ponies and maniacal laughter. The small village behind the pony glowed with flames so bright they made her eyes ache and stung her nostrils.

She wanted to warn the pony and do something about it, but she couldn't. She tried screaming, but her mouth wouldn't move either.

Cadance woke suddenly. Luna, sat on her chair, looked at her and screamed her name as soon as she woke up, jumping at her.

"Cadance! Listen to me!" She heard Luna cry. She seemed deathly worried about something, but her voice was distant. The room was on fire. Cadance could smell burnt flesh and a mad cackling that she was sure wouldn't ever leave her alone for eternity.

The little houses were on fire. Ponies ran everywhere. Ash blew in the wind. A stone pillar collapsed. An oat field aflame beyond the building's entrance lit the night into day. The sky was gone, replaced by a meaningless mad combination of senseless colors. A pony that was important to her lied lifeless near her. Her dress, one of the wondrous offerings she had received was torn and stained in red. The crystal walls of Luna's Throne of the Mind were on fire. There was smoke everywhere and she could hear distant cries of ponies begging for help. None of it made any sense and it made her even more anxious.

"Cadance!" Luna called her again, but she found herself unable to simply keep a straight life of thought. Luna made her look at her eyes, though. "Your mind is looping around a series of recollections of a very traumatic experience and the fails-safes aren't working anymore! You were not supposed to see this place. It's causing your limbic system to force memories that are banished from the conscious mind right into it! It's fragmenting your Self. You're becoming psychotic and I don't know what will be coming out the other side when you go back to normal if this doesn't stop soon!"

Cadance coughed at the smoke and tried to focus on Luna's voice. For some reason she didn't understand, not that she did anything at all at that moment, she was very angry at Luna. "Please! For all that is sacred! Let me help! Let go of these memories!"

_You did this to me! You violated my mind, filed my horn and cut my wings! You defiled my Gift!_

"You hurt me!" Cadance roared and pushed her. Coughed with a fierce scowl. "You entered my mind, restrained my power and my freedom! You ruined my Special Talent!"

"No!" Luna cried and held her shoulders. "You are confused! Please, let me help!"

_You wallow in lies. The Ancient Pact is no more, and your supremacy is forfeit! I will witness what you have hidden whatever the costs!_

Luna's tears meant little to the pink alicorn in the middle of the foul smoke and terrible flicker of the flames. "You lied to me! I don't trust you and you are not my superior anymore! I want to see it, no matter what it costs me!"

The pain returned. Cadance held her chest with a hoof and cried, and coughed, and wailed collapsing to the floor. Above her Luna stared with her mouth agape. Her own breathing too fast and painful. She looked at the magical images and at Cadance. Again, at one and then another.

Finally, Luna closed her eyes and trembled. Her horn lit up with her blue magic and reached for her seat.

Suddenly the pain was gone. The smoke and the fire were gone. The cries. The laugher. All gone. Cadance supported her weight on her foreleg knees and looked around. Everything seemed perfectly normal, from the room to the magical images. At least as normal as Cadance could figure out since they were just doing their thing and not flashing, and no sirens sounded. Luna was nowhere to be seen and her heart slowed down now.

"Luna?" She stood slowly.

_She has left my mind._

"I hurt Auntie Luna! She was trying to help me! I had never struck another pony like that! What is happening to me?"

_I acted out of place and I made an immature filly out of myself. I must seek her forgiveness, but regardless, I must witness what she has hidden._

She looked at the door and walked slowly. Outside, everything around the 'tree' was exactly as it was before. She could swear that the gems had shifted places again though. But the most important thing was that the archway with the stairs leading downwards was unlocked. Luna's magic was simply gone.

She stared down the stairwell. It was dark and it still filled her with a foreboding feeling that she was making a mistake. "What was it that they said about staring into the abyss?"

It was funny that the place she found herself in, somehow, was inside of her mind, because it was so silent and peaceful, yet each step she took down those stairs more and more metaphorical alarms sounded in her head that she was doing something dangerous and forbidden.

She wondered for a brief instant if that was how Twilight felt going into the Queen's Spawning Pool… And what a mess that unleashed.

-A/N-

The original idea for Cadance's mental breakdown inside her head had a bunch of Cadances (or Lunas) wearing maid uniforms and panicking while trying to help Luna get things under control. But the idea of small versions of oneself didn't fit with the model of the Palace to me because the whole thing is supposed to be like a single magical computer 'running the pony mind', not a control room.

Another idea was that Luna would have created them specifically for helping in that situation but, the idea of Luna making several life-like beings that would live for a few minutes and cease to exist didn't really agree with me either. One thing I'm trying not to do is banalize certain concepts, such as the importance of the sun, Luna's job with dreams, the damage Cadance's magic could cause and the meaning of the Elements of Harmony. Casually creating Meeseeks-style life is not something Luna would do.

I thought of bringing the Tantabus into the scene to help her, but its place is when dreams are working normally. In this chapter things are way out of the normal and I didn't want too much of a humorous scene, given the content of Cadance's memories. Another reason to avoid the previous ideas.

There was also the idea of the Mane Six symbolizing the Elements and making her mind work a la Inside Out, but it wouldn't work with the lore about the creation of the ponies for reasons still to show up. There is a vague idea for a short story about Luna trying to upgrade the Throne of the Mind though. Either idea could go.


	18. Singularity

Exquisite works of art lined both crystal walls at the bottom of the crystal stairway. Cadance stopped at the first and it was a painting of herself snuggling up with Shining Armor and holding a very sleepy Flurry Heart, who in turn held her new Princess Luna plushie with a ful scenery, depth, and lighting. But what she first thought were paintings made by some absurdly talented master actually moved and when she focused on them, they became as clear as though she was there and invoked a strange feeling of presence.

Shining Armor moved softly next to her pressing his body against hers and the small weight of the baby on her chest gave way when she breathed in. The more she focused on the image the more real it became. She could feel the warmth of their bodies, the smell of baby powder and of Shining Armor's mane. An overbearing happiness. Rainbow Dash snoring in the corner, Rarity quietly chatting with Applejack and Twilight's horn chiming along with the sounds of her feather pen scratching the paper. The ship's magical engines humming in her ears and the ever-present magical murmur they caused in her magical senses.

The near all-powerful magic that emanated from the night sky like the twinkling of the stars. Comforting the sleeping ponies like a blanket over their bodies, protecting them from the cold of the sunless sky. It became so common that she barely noticed it under normal circumstances.

Overwhelmed, she backed away and everything was gone. She was back in the crystal corridor staring at the barely moving painting.

That was a memory. Whatever Luna was hiding and was causing her that pain must be in there!

Then she looked at the paintings down the corridor and took a few steps deeper. She saw herself talking to Chocolate Velvet, both wearing their barding next to the small wood cottage by the corn field. On the other side was the surprising moment when the glass broke in the cottage by the corn field. She actually saw the stun magic grenade fly in.

She smiled to herself. Great reflexes! You go girl!

Then her smile vanished with her ears perked up and she walked further down the corridor. If those where her most recent memories, or perhaps the ones that were important to her.

She passed paintings of she and Twilight jumping from her airship.

Their attempt at feeding Flurry Heart.

She picked up the pace and she soon found her conversation with Luna and Chrysalis. A small ember of hope grew by the moment in her chest.

She galloped down the crystal corridor to a frantic beating of her hooves clinking in the magical floor. Saw herself greeting Twilight in the entrance of her palace.

Faster. Faster. Paintings whizzed past her and the wind whistled in her ears.

Twilight's crowning ceremony and then her marriage to Shining Armor.

Her younger self, talking to a filly Twilight, having lots and lots of fun making paintings of their favorite foods in pieces of paper. Her mother and father served them homemade cookies and it was one of the best moments of her history with Twilight's family.

Yes! Family! She ran even faster until her legs burned, her lungs ached. Her eyes hurt, and tears wet her cheeks under a storm of emotions stirring in her chest. Fear and anticipation in each heartbeat. Her heart thundered in her ears as she flew past the small pink alicorn before the pristine white of the great Celestia.

The Witch Prismia was no more, defeated by a young and clueless pegasus that just wanted her to stop hurting others.

A cold bed in the dark. So cold and alone.

An empty plate on a rustic table. Her matron would yell at them it was their fault they didn't work hard enough.

The wooden doors of the orphanage framed by stone walls. So scary and filled with unknowns.

And then impenetrable blackness.

"No!" She practically threw herself at the 'painting', stomping her hooves on the wall. Her sore throat croaked out the word as painful as the vision itself. Not simply a 'nothing'. But a place where something should be, replaced with the lack of it. An empty frame showing black, sealed with Luna's Moon in blue wax and a silver ribbon. She pulled back her ears and pulled at the thing with her magic.

"Come on!" Her ears fell and her wings sagged, eventually she gave up pulling at the seal with her magic and her head hung low. "Please! Luna! Please! Why?"

_It was necessary._

She slowly lifted her head and then rubbed her eyes. "I am older now. Shouldn't I be allowed to know?"

_I cannot. I should not. It is dangerous. I will hurt myself._

She frowned. "Maybe there was a good reason, but I want to see! I want to remember. I should have the option."

_I am unique among ponies. I am special, destined for a different plane of existence and my reality is broken for I am not where I was supposed to be. That is why I must understand the past that the Mistress of Dreams hid from me. It is the key to my stolen Gift and also my past._

"Wait a minute." She mused and stared down the corridor. Several of her early memories were locked away. It only caused her to frown more. Confusion and curiosity replaced her sorrow. How young was she? How many early impactful memories should she have had? She was taken into the orphanage so young. It was literally the first thing she remembered.

She walked over to the next painting. An entire city burned around Discord, laughing with his arms up. A strange sky where deranged and disjointed colors replaced the blue. Distant sounds became cries of pain and sorrow. Insane laughter. A voice called her for help and emotions suddenly rushed into her head. Rage. It was so perfect and so beautiful, but someone had destroyed it all. Her wrath called for murder, and her whole body tensed up. But then there was sorrow. So deep and intense she let out a small cry and was left in a confusing whirlwind of conflicting emotions.

She controlled herself and stepped away from the painting. It returned to the image of Discord above the burning city. That was the Capital of Equestria. The one Chrysalis had told them of when Discord almost destroyed the world.

Towards the end of the corridor there were many more paintings, but she saw something she hadn't noticed earlier. A large pink statue of an alicorn in the dead end. She frowned and walked towards it. It looked alive, and not only that, it looked like a fiery creature of pure magic, disembodied. Free magic given life. It was a female with her belly exposed because of the way she sat, with her wings flared open in full display, and a sharp, long horn. She had her forelegs stretched out, offering a bright red flaming heart and she looked forward at it, or something that would be next to her, right above the heart.

The heart itself pulsated with pink energy and indeed sounded like a beating heart.

_Dum-thump._

_Dum-thump._

"What is this?" She stared into its eyes and the statue stared back at her. They were somehow made of fiery passion.

_Dum-thump._

_I am Love._

It was raining. But it didn't seem like a normal rain, it was a raging magical storm that rumbled above like a furious monster and it rained magic-infused water. Storm magic so powerful that it froze before it touched the ground and exploded into little magical sparks. The wind howled incessantly and caused the already magically freezing rain to pelt the rock and light the whole ground with uncontrolled, wild magic.

As far as the eye could see it was nothing more than dead rocks, storm, unforgiving wind, and sand beyond it. It was as incompatible with life as a square fitting on a circle. But hooves struck the stone despite all the odds.

Forty-two ponies challenged the storm and braved the dead land. Five males surrounded the group and thirty-five females walked in between carrying or dragging large burdens supported on triangle shaped dollies made of sticks and woven plants. They led scared animals with them, pulling them with their leashes and carried others in small stick cages. Some of them were heavy with foals and one of them helped a wounded male earth pony walk. Fourteen unicorns, fourteen pegasi and fourteen earth ponies walked together wearing tightly woven plant fiber cloaks and under their hoods their eyes shone with fierce resolve. They fought the wind that flapped their protection against their bodies like it was nothing. It wouldn't deter them, neither would the hard, sharp rock or the magical rain.

They were strong, they were smart and there would always be enough of them, but they were also bonded in an ancient pact, that compelled them to protect each other, to help their wounded and assist whenever one of them needed help. That included their world. They would bring it to heel and they would tame chaos.

They didn't know where they were going, but they knew that they must go! They didn't understand why, but they had left the giant trees of their beautiful home behind. It was important that they did, and one hoof after the other, one breath after the other, their old hearth was left behind several suns ago.

Other groups left their home behind too. There was something sad about it, but they didn't remember what it was. Something urged them to leave with an unbearable desire to go forth and see what was out there beyond the giant trees. It was terribly important, so they obeyed.

And forward they marched, against rock, storm and wind, blindly following the one in the front. She was a dark-pink unicorn under her cloak and a bit of her mane showed a beautiful dark sapphire color. They didn't know her name and she didn't know theirs. They all knew each other by their cutie marks, and hers showed an arrow made of stars. So, they followed her: she knew where to go.

They walked for days past the storm and into the desert with no end in sight. They shared what they had amongst themselves and their animals, but when it was over, they had to stop and their pegasi gathered more clouds and urged them to rain a refreshing and soft shower. They replenished their stocks and ate from the newly born grass the earth ponies just dug out of the ground. It was normal for them… Earth ponies just did that. Unicorns knew things, pegasi made it rain and the earth ponies made the plants grow. That was just how it was supposed to be. Period.

But they eventually moved on. They were still too close and the one who knew the way kept them walking for even more suns. When she stopped, they stopped. Then she would look one way and another, change direction and keep going. Stop again and look at the stars, and then keep going and they followed her.

When scary things attacked whey protected the youngest, the newborn foals and their mothers. They would form lines and face the monsters with magic blasts, hooves and bites if they must. But not the stallions. They would END the scary things trying to hurt their friends and it usually resulted in one or more of them getting hurt. They would stop for days, resist whatever the world threw at them, but they would not leave one of theirs behind.

They were smart. They made shelter and they urged the land to feed them. They were also curious, and they explored and found things they liked, like colorful stones and shinny crystals. They realized that they could crack and shape the stone and with it they could cut things more easily. It was easier to repair their dollies then. They taught each other and made their new tools better. They found they could paint things new colors with some rocks and made everything prettier.

Then, they moved on again. They weren't _there _yet.

Until one moon, after countless suns, 'arrowbutt' stopped and smiled. They had arrived. Another female unicorn next to her, soft blue and white stared at her. And then at the land before them. It was a barren wasteland with a puddle the most enthusiastic could've called a lake if they tried hard enough. There was a small mount with a cave too, but it wasn't very nice.

She looked back at their guide as though she had misunderstood. Then she stared at the place again, and back at their guide, a bit angrily, as though to ask if she was sure.

She was. The sun rose and it was still a not very nice place, but they knew that everything the Sun and Moon touched belonged to them. So, they grinned confidently and set to work.

They undone their heavy burdens and took their supplies inside the cave, along with all the important things they had brought from the place they had left. But the first thing they did was prepare a place in the center and surround it with their wool beds. In the middle they put wood, twigs, kindling in the form of wool from their sheep. Somepony put some rocks around it and they thought it was clever.

It was ready. An old unicorn with a dark yellow coat and red and orange mane, a small flame for cutie mark, brought a small container. A hollow horn from a ram with an open cover made of leaves that prevented water from getting in, and from it she dropped bright little embers into their new fireplace. It caught fire, small and then it grew until it became large enough to burn the wood and warm them.

They all celebrated. That was home now.

These ponies needed to communicate better and started making neighing sounds and hoof gestures which allowed the unicorns to better coordinate their efforts. The pegasi started gathering clouds and the earth ponies started digging the ground. They built shelters for their animals and when the day was done, they all hid inside the cave again.

The suns passed and the land became alive. Little animals came. Little birds sang. They were happy. They were doing what they were supposed to, and the land responded. Life expanded in all directions and in every way possible. Eventually they even changed that place's name from 'Disgraced Hole Forgotten by Harmony' and 'Our Guide Sucks' to 'Moon Mirror' because the moon reflected off their lake.

They explored their land and found more and more exciting things. A gorgeous waterfall, more shinny things they liked. New fruits were born, and they were delicious. Flowers they could make dye from and make things prettier. Beautiful places to lay in the grass, little bunnies that needed help digging their homes. Bees that produced honey and stung the incautious but could feed them with delicious honey. Beautiful colorful birds and wondrous magical creatures.

And strangers. Ponies they didn't know arrived one sun, but they recognized something inside that made it click into place. They were friends too, and they had brought from their home feathers from different birds than the ones they knew. So, they offered the shiny stones they had found.

Others brought them things called seashells and they spoke of an endless lake. Others spoke of big yak that lived way, way, waaaaay over the mountains and others told them of the dragons and their lakes of fire. Striped ponies that lived in the desert that didn't change, but became alive anyway, and their potions; big and brave griffons and their sharpened sticks they used to protect their homes from the monsters. Somepony thought those were good ideas and they made some too. They made it a lot easier to chase away the scary things trying to hurt them and to heal their friends, and they were so grateful they told the other ponies to take their dyes, made from the flowers to the griffons and zebras so that they could dye their beds too.

Every sun was full of things to do and to see.

Then, one moon they settled to sleep, but one young unicorn mare, all yellow with a shinny mane, and a cute flower for cutie mark couldn't sleep. The fire showed her the brownish red wall of their cave and she didn't like it. It wasn't very pretty, and she wanted it to change, so she rummaged around her things, fussing with her straw-woven baskets until she found some of the pretty stones she had found. It didn't smell very nice, but it was pretty. She held it in her magic and started painting the wall. It surprised her when she realized that it looked like 'a thing'. She wondered if she could draw shapes and she could. She tried drawing the mountain, but the color was all wrong. So, she decided she should cover it with something else and drew the Sun over it. She put small wavy lines and it looked like it shone.

She liked it. It was important. It dictated the rhythm of life with her Sister, which was also important, so she looked for a white chalky stone and drew the Moon too. She nodded and them she drew herself with the yellow stone. It didn't really look her, but it was close enough and she giggled.

Then she looked for other things to draw and rummaged inside another straw basket, the one her bed neighbor usually used. In there she found a straw doll of a pony. The color of the straw matched, but there was something curious. Somepony had stuck a pair of leaves to the doll's back and a small stick to its forehead.

Confused, she stared at it for a while. There was something about the doll that made her feel sad, but she didn't know why. She had forgotten something that was important. She didn't like that feeling and it started hurting her, so she drew it on the wall. It didn't really look much like a pony, but it was close enough. She liked it, but it wasn't perfect yet. She drew pegasi and unicorns too. Something was missing and if frustrated her. She started drawing more ponies like herself, becoming more and more aggravated.

The other ponies noticed that something bothered their friend. She was frantically drawing on the wall, panting and whining. She seemed distressed and that seemed very important to her, so they joined. They grabbed stones and the more artistically oriented unicorns even grabbed the dyes they used to make their wool beds pretty. They started drawing too. Little bushes, things that resembled little bunnies, squirrels and birds, big trees, a little lake, and some clouds. More ponies and flowers.

Their drawings weren't anywhere near realistic, but they were close enough. There were giant brown and green trees that surrounded everything, embracing a lake and grassy fields full of little animals and ponies surrounding four figures that looked like ponies. Close enough. And they had pairs of wings and horns. One shone like the sun and the other like the moon. The third was pink and had a big heart, and the fourth was white, with six pretty stones around her neck.

The ponies stared at their drawing and it seemed to have satisfied their friend. What is more, they remembered it too. But it also made them sad because they were left alone. But at least now they wouldn't forget anymore.

Then Cadance realized that her thoughts had been quiet that whole time.

She was transported. Luna's words rang at the back of her head. 'The train of thoughts' was a good term. One memory that pulled another. It was similar to teleporting, actually.

She saw a pony knelt in front of her. It was a very young earth pony mare with radishes for cutie mark on her off-pink coat and with a light green mane she cut short. She was not particularly cute, her colors didn't help a lot and she certainly didn't possess a ravishing beauty either, but she had livid and bright rosé eyes that caught her fancy.

At the same time Cadance noticed she couldn't move, and for some bizarre reason she couldn't grasp that didn't scare her as much as it should. She also noticed a strange lack of sensations. No touch, no smells. Nothing. But all that seemed unimportant and normal.

Some of her thoughts seemed like they weren't spontaneous to herself, but she attributed that to this vision, dream, memory… Whatever it was being so introspective. She decided that much of what she felt was what she felt at the time it occurred in reality. Or whoever she was supposed to be felt. It was confusing and she decided not to think too much and accept it.

The really important thing was that she could hear whispers. Too many to count. And yet she could hear any one of them at any given time. It should be disturbing to Cadance's usually quiet and organized mind, but it was comforting. Like everything was the way it was supposed to be. She felt a bond, a connection. A sense of belonging.

Behind the pony in front of her was an area of beaten ground surrounded by little homes, little more than domes of weaved grass and bamboo structures placed over holes in the ground with a stair entrance. It was the middle of the day, and a large bonfire was being prepared nearby to the sound of ponies merrily working and already celebrating. It was a small settlement.

Her mind was fuzzy, and she had trouble focusing on certain things as though she couldn't recall them, and she was forced to focus on something else. Cadance wasn't sure why, but the strange little village had a very calming and reassuring effect on her. It seemed something so familiar, despite never having lived or seem anything remotely similar.

Regardless, she wouldn't know how the pony called herself. She recognized something in that pony that was unique to her. Truly unique, unlike a name that was something that one could share with another.

The little pony laid over her bent legs on the grass, as was customary and stared up with beautiful eyes, full of hope and dreams. All of them were expected to do that, and as was also customary, she brought a gift. It was a… Who in the entirety of Creation offered a bunch of radishes as sacrifice?

Well, she supposed it was a valid sacrifice since it was part of her family's produce and those things were the best ones her family had produced. That was her offer, anyways, and she seemed proud of it. It was also food and would keep her faithful fed.

They were wrapped like a bouquet in a nice and clean cattail weave wrap. And they were all clean, they were sizeable… And she was sure they would be tasty… If radishes were tasty. Most important of all, the pony's heart gleamed with the earnest desire to please her. She wouldn't dare doubt this little pony's heart. It had somepony's heart that was special to it and it begged for her permission.

Well, it was decided. Her offering was enough and as such, Cadance waited gleefully for her request.

The pony clapped her hooves together and smiled radiantly before speaking with her timid voice. "Hello. I am… Um. Crunchy Salad. I hope Your Lady of the Heart is pleased with my gift! I know it isn't much, but these were the best of our harvest. Hum… As you know… I'm of mating age and mama made me the most beautiful of dresses. But I'm not really pretty enough that my special somepony will even notice me. If it is alright with you, I would really like it if he noticed me and went with me to Your Lady's Festival."

Cadance couldn't speak, but she wanted to help the hopeful little pony.

"His name is Astral Wind, Miss Storm Wind's second son. I thank you in advance, Lady." She said, quickly got up and moved away.

While Cadance wouldn't know him by his name, her little heart whispered to her in the middle of all the others, as clear as the day who was Astral Wind. Well, that was all fine and good if she wanted to be in love with that pony, but she couldn't connect the name to the pony!

Why did they always do this?! Why do they expect her to know all their names?! She needed help or else she couldn't find that Astral Wind!

In mere seconds another pony came to her. This time it was a lavishly gorgeous pony. A unicorn with a soft yellow coat and voluminous and wild golden mane to go with her honey eyes. She wore a very rustic white dress and smiled at Cadance, then retrieved the offering with her telekinetic magic.

Excellent. One of the ponies that always came when she called. Not only that, but this one was special. She was her favorite pony!

For some reason Cadance couldn't remember that pony was incredibly important to her but trying to remember was giving her a headache that was ruining the nice moment. So, she let go and instead focused on that mare while she examined the radishes, shrugged and stashed them away from Cadance's eyes.

"Daffodil!" Another mare, an overly excited older unicorn pony with light orange coat and graying-out yellow mane approached. She showed a strange cutie mark that she had never seen before, but somehow, she knew what it was. A bone needle. Used for sewing simple clothes and making some tools. How did Cadance suddenly know what a bone needle was, she had no idea, but at the moment the thought seemed more like a distraction than an important point of contention with her present situation.

The mare approached and stared at Cadance for a second, smiling cheerfully before returning her eyes to the taller and younger mare. "Thank you so much for coming to our village! You can`t can't imagine the happiness that you brought us! We'd like to pay you, somehow for your trouble since we know you're so busy in Heart-Hearth."

"Oh, no, Madam Elder! It is no trouble at all! I merely must go where the Lady of the Heart commands me!" Her beautiful voice sang more than spoke and she made a flamboyant and exaggerated sweep with her hoof.

Daffodil! Cadance needed Daffodil to look for the colt, Astral Wind, son of Storm Wind or else little Salad's love will go unrequited!

"I must say, your village is very adorable and pleasant! But the Lady of the Heart has work for me. A young filly and a young colt live here, and the Lady would see them together. He answers by the name of Astral Wind, son of Storm Wind."

"Oh, my goodness!" The old mare tip tapped in place. "Would you perform the tying of the knot ceremony for our new couple?"

"Oh, absolutely yes! If that is what the Lady wishes of me." Daffodil smiled warmly. "Where may I find the colt? I know the filly would still be around the meeting area, I believe I talked to her, and I must say Astral Wind will be delighted at the mate the Lady has chosen for him!"

"I will gladly introduce your ladyship to him! His family lives by the field, right this way!"

It was confusing at first, but Cadance somehow jumped into the beautiful pony and… Rode along? It was the best analogy she could come up with to explain to herself what had just happened and she simply started feeling like a normal pony again but she could still hear the whispers in her head and another voice that she could only imagine were Daffodil's thoughts and her certainty of doing Her bidding. She simply accepted it while the beautiful mare walked next to the 'elder'. She liked ridding along.

She felt the grass on her hooves, the rough cotton fabric on her coat and Daffodil's other senses, as well as her magical senses that told her of all the beautiful and plentiful life all around. It was a bit chilly and would certainly be cooler once the Moon replaced her Sister in the sky, but the bonfire would make it perfect for ponies to cuddle and celebrate her Gift.

The walk was short through the central square, though calling it that might've been an exaggeration. It was more of a meeting area with an empty space for such. Grass weaved blankets held all the food the ponies brought to celebrate the Lady of the Heart. Whispers in her head spoke of all the excitement, the break from routine and the promise of a fun afternoon, after all the work was done.

Some ponies of all three tribes prepared very rustic musical instruments next to the working ponies. Flutes, drums, oboes, and rattles, all made off wood, pony hair, seeds, or seashells, and one or two things made of bone or animal leather.

A small oven made of a hole on the ground covered in stones, leaves and sand released a delicious smell of some sort of cooked fruits. Maybe figs, some berries and apples. The smell watered Daffodil's and Cadance's mouth.

Some ponies already danced to the sound of the musicians. Pairs had formed and orbited each other, shamelessly moving in rhythm with the music, not remotely caring if it was beautiful or harmonious. It was a simply an expression of pure joy. They had painted traditional drawings over their bodies with plant and mineral dyes. Cadance appreciated their 'tattoos' even if most of them had no concept of what colors went together. They all seemed so happy and spontaneous.

Either way ponies congregated and danced, ate copious amounts of food and just frolicked together, waving and celebrating Daffodil's passage while they also prepared the bonfire to be lit when it would be time.

Her chest warmed imagining the festivity once the work was done and all could join the celebration.

Past a couple of little hut-houses they stopped by the last one before the field. It wasn't really a large one by Cadance's standards, but it should provide enough radishes for however few ponies lived in the small village. They also seemed to plant oats, corn and had several animals with them. A few ponies worked the field with rustic tools made of stone and ropes.

The houses themselves seemed to have a cap at the tip, like a second ceiling that confused Cadance for a while but the thought eluded her for a while when they stopped by the entrance, closed with a meager cattail weave curtain and the Elder literally neighed. Okay… That was awkward, but it worked. A yellow and lime pegasus peeked his head out from behind the curtain. Upon seeing the visitors, he gasped and rushed back inside. Knocked something over and squealed about it, then something else seemed to tumble over. Then he finally walked outside with what seemed to Cadance as his best 'mare's stallion' smile and brushed mane.

"How can I help the faithful of the Lady of the Heart?" He said while he whispered all sorts of cute and lewd thoughts to Cadance's mind.

"By calling your son, Astral Wind instead of bothering the Lady's servant." The elder grinned all prankish.

"Oh… He's inside. Just came back from cloud duty." Cadance giggled at how much his levels of excitement plummeted, though she didn't appreciate the older mare making fun of him for having expectations. She saw nothing wrong with a healthy male pony being attracted to such a beautiful pony as Daffodil. Regardless, he went on. "Do you want me to bring him?"

"That is not necessary." Daffodil rose a hoof before the elder could say anything and came very close to sharing her thoughts with the Elder but didn't. "If it is not any trouble, would you have me at your hearth?"

Oh… Okay then. Cadance giggled to herself again. It seemed that politician ponies never changed. Whenever in the past these events had occurred or in present time, when ponies still fought for her time and attention. Her money and influence, more likely since ponies of the present had no interest in her ultimate gift for them.

She didn't let the thought sadden her while the pegasus stallion pulled open the curtain for her to enter and smiled radiantly at her while Daffodil bowed her head respectfully.

Inside the air was more at a pleasant temperature and it was little more than a hole in the ground. A neat and well-cared for hole in the ground though, hardly more than what a pony needed to protect themselves from the rain or the cold. Speaking of the cold, it had a small hearth with a fire surrounded by river stones. The smoke drained outside through a gap in the ceiling, protected from above. Oh! That was how it worked! The wind outside pulled the air from inside and took the smoke with it while the hot air circled around!

Their ingenuity still amazed her in all the ways their perspicacious minds worked around every problem daily life presented them. It almost made Cadance jealous of that Gift, but as smart as they were, they still needed her help to figure out the matters of the Heart.

Other than the cleverly built hearth, the floor was covered in roughly sewn and weaved blankets. A hole in the ground, covered with a heavy piece of wood was their pantry and the walls were decorated with pretty and colorful beading. They didn't make those heartfelt paintings of her in the cave walls anymore, but they were better that way.

There a few beds made of heavy and dyed wool spread around the small house and some ponies were drawn to Daffodil's expressive presence. An adult unicorn with cyan coat and blue mane was teaching a younger mare of similar colors how to make the pretty beading they hanged on the wall. Two young foals bothered another adult mare trying to cut a piece of leather with a knife made of a sharp and shiny polished rock with a bone handle. Another pegasus, soft green with pale blue, green and yellow mane that went well with his blue eyes. Wavy soft colorful lines in his flank, fidgeting around with a hoe made of stone and bone tied with leather straps, but he stopped when he noticed the mare at the entrance.

Cadance recognized him immediately and Daffodil smiled broadly at the sight.

The stallion that received them rose his hoof. "Daffodil, servant of the Lady of the Heart has something important to tell us!"

Daffodil left the entrance steps and approached the young pony smiling. "Be happy, Astral Wind! The Lady of the Heart has granted her Greatest Gift to you!"

"Wow… Uh…" He blushed a little and scratched his mane. "That's awesome, I guess. I mean… Who are they? Do I have to do anything?"

Cadance squee'd inside. Yay! A happy couple forever!

"Oh, you will know when you see her!" Her hoof touched his chest and she showed him a giant smile. "Just follow your heart! It hears the Lady, even if your head doesn't. And when you find her, I will teach you all that the Lady has to teach to young couples burning with passion!"

"Jeez, Astral. You're so clueless the Lady had to send one of her servants all the way out here for you to figure this out!" One of the pegasus fillies chided him. "I hope she spares me from a dumb flank like you."

Well, if there was one thing that never changed it would be siblings. Cadance giggled to herself once more. When the oldest unicorn suddenly opened wide her eyes. "Goodness! Where are our manners?"

Her telekinetic magic brought to them a small basket of woven straw filled to the top and a little more with the little honey colored fruits. They smelled amazing to Cadance and Daffodil liked her lips, but when she took one into her mouth and bit into it, core and all, the little fruit exploded with delicious sweetness and a bit of caramel. If Cadance was in control of that body, it would probably have toppled over and demanded to be fed a train load of the thing.

"Hmmm! Hmm hmm hmm!" Daffodil happily munched on the fruit. "It's delicious!"

The unicorn matriarch of the family smiled radiantly that their dates were appreciated. "We traded them in from a tall-pony explorer travelling our lands. They loved the radishes our ponies produce!"

Daffodil was ready to pick another, but what she said held her. "Oh. They are from a distant land."

The other unicorn shook her head and smiled. "It is no problem. If you like it so much It is our gift to the Lady of The Heart! For your visit! Will you stay with us? You will need a place to sleep on your stay!"

Suddenly Cadance felt like she didn't have a body again. And seemed to be sitting inside a large marble structure, at the top of a few steps. It was pretty pink marble and heavy wood and metal doors were closed and one of the marble pillars had fallen. The wind howled furiously outside and ponies wearing pretty white dresses also wore heavy winter capes and ran everywhere frantically gathering things with help from other ponies. From papers to trinkets and some food.

A gorgeous pony, all yellow with a golden mane showed her face before her, looking all concerned and worried.

_Our dearest Daffodil._

She looked a bit different, though. Younger and a bit different. It was difficult to understand. She was Daffodil, but seemed like another pony that looked a lot like her.

"We cannot leave the goddess!" She squealed half-panicked at the other ponies. "What will those monsters do to Her?"

She remembered. The Windigos were upon them and their temple in that island in the Northern Neighean Sea had to be abandoned. It was a shame. She adored the love poems directed at mares one of her priestesses wrote there.

Oh well… Sucks… But why were they so concerned? They shouldn't even be there! They should have left already!

One pegasus approached and he was a beautiful looking soldier with a black armor over his stormy grey coat and lightning blue mane turned crest while a gray unicorn wearing a blue winter cape picked things up with her magic. "I don't know if we can do anything about it, priestess…"

He sounded so sorrowfull. What was wrong with those ponies? It was an important building, but the temple could be rebuilt when it would be acceptable. The had to leave!

Then he turned to the unicorn in the back. "This is all because you stupid unicorns!"

"Excuse-me?" She barked back while Daffodil simply stared at Cadance like she was about to cry.

Unbelievable!

_Fly thy foals! The Windigos cometh and ye cannot hold them! The shrine is insignificant, it is in thy Hearts We reside! Ye must survive! Heed the Gift of Friendship then, save yourselves!_

That shook Daffodill and she became even more scared. "What was I thinking?! Forget everything! We have to go! Now!"

And that was what they did. They left anything that wasn't important and left out the door. The whispers in her head, all scared and frantic, were also determined. The others had commanded them to leave too. The temples would be left empty, but it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they survived. It would be their most important test yet.

Soon it became dark, but she could their whispers. They had escaped. Everything would be fine, and they would take her with them wherever they went. They would wake her when it was time, so she closed her eyes and allowed herself into slumber. Windigos be damned, their race would survive. She knew it.

Cadance woke with the sensation that she was placed somewhere. She saw that she was at the flat top of a mount. She could see another where ponies were building something grandiose. Beyond was a lovely oat field. Then a pony with a large smile came in front of her and sat. It was her Daffodil. Some years older than she was the last time she had seen her, but the years only added to her beauty. Behind her a few pegasi and earth ponies smiling proudly.

"We found a nice place for you!" She showed the scenery with a sweep of her hoof. "We called it Equestria!"

_Ye have survived! Your proud race remembered the Ancient Pact and the Fire of Friendship burneth anew! We are overjoyed!_

Everything was perfect again. All she had to do was wait for her new home to be ready!

Things changed suddenly and Cadance saw that Discord staring critically at her. She was now inside a building with large columns covered in gold and the soft pink marble of the floor had marvelous golden inlays. Several rose petals scattered around the floor and running water could be heard. After a long hall a large open door showed a field covered in oats. Some ponies milled about, dressed in all sorts of dresses and togas. Some of them seemed to bring gifts in the form of bouquets of yellow flowers they left wherever it seemed appropriated.

She felt strange again, as though she didn't have a body, but the worse was the silence. The multitude of whispers seemed a lot calmer now. What changed? She missed them!

Discord's presence commanded her attention though, and his was on Cadance, too. He scratched his chin and frowned. Then he clicked a claw on her muzzle.

_How inconvenient._

"Could you please not?" Somepony said from her side and he grimaced with a guilty smile and took a few steps back while a big and strong earth pony stallion with black coat and curly jet mane deposited some daffodils by Cadance's hooves. He wore a wonderful white toga with a heart shaped brooch.

My… What a nice-looking stud!

"Sorry. She just looks so pretty."

"Of course, she does. She's Amore." The pony seemed almost offended and the whispers she heard from him made that clear.

"Well, please don't touch the goddess. She finds it bothersome."

"It's a statue."

"Yessssss…" His condescending smile filled with teeth made Cadance giggle. "It is an idol. Touching it is like touching Amore Herself."

"That doesn't make a lot of sense."

"And since when must things make sense for you?" The pony stared blankly, and Discord crossed his arms, finally rolling his eyes.

"Huh… Fine. Sorry, sorry." He grinned apologetically and the pony left, after smiling happily at him having understood. Then Discord turned his attention back to Cadance.

"This is so freaky…"

"What is?" Star Swirl, with his hat and cape walked into her view and next to Discord, still staring at Cadance. Star Swirl looked at her too, and he seemed rather a strapping young stallion. "What?"

"She speaks and these ponies… Like… They obey. But she doesn't really think. She just… I don't even know how to explain."

"Who?" Star Swirl's brow raised. "The statue?"

"I mean… You're not even supposed to know about them. You were supposed to have forgotten them once you migrated from the Green Harbor! This is all kinds of messed up."

"What are you talking about, Discord?" Star Swirl looked as confused as Cadance was disturbed at the fact that she knew who that pony was, but she couldn't hear his whispers.

"Just look at her." Discord insisted.

"What about it?" Star Swirl did stare at Cadance. "I do not see anything wrong with it. It is how all statues of Amore are made."

She thought it a bit curious the way these ponies talked. But couldn't put her hoof on it.

Another pony came into view, this time a beautiful youngling, barely an adult, covered in grayish cyan coat and with a beautiful gold and bronze mane. He wore a leather barding and carried a shield with him. He simply stared distrusting at Cadance and spoke with a reserved tone, covering his mouth. "They say they even carve her lady bits under her tail…"

_Leave! You disturb the proceedings and use my temple for blasphemous idling! Why won't you heed my voice? Begone!_

Discord smirked and blushed at the comment while Star Swirl sighed. "Focus more on your studies, and less on statues of mares, Rockhoof…"

A wrath Cadance rarely usually felt stirred in her chest and she wished she could blast the three of them out of existence with her magic. Why didn't they listen to her?!

A pony in the background, a pretty lilac coated and raven-maned unicorn wearing a pristine white dress and golden addresses talked to a pair of pegasi and received a bundle of daffodils from them.

Wait! Where was Daffodil? Intellectually, Cadance understood too much time must have passed and Daffodil simply passed away. But she still felt like Daffodil was somehow missing.

Regardless, the mare looked at the three near Cadance and frowned while coming to them. But her eyes softened. She whispered to Cadance's mind that she remembered to be nice to the guests. And she spoke calmly to them.

"Master Swirl. Master Discord. And… Whoever you are. Would you kindly take your conversation outside the Basilica? They disturb the goddess."

"You see?!" Discord pointed at the pony. "They did it again! It's like she thinks inside their heads or something! I'm pretty sure your minds weren't supposed to work like that!"

"Well… You know how the mares are, Master Discord." Rockhoof made a spinning gesture with his hoof next to his head while the mare waited with mild anger.

Star Swirl hummed and narrowed his eyes at the mare next to them and she blinked, a little disturbed. "Do you hear voices that should not be present, milady?"

"Yes!" Her straight-faced reply made Cadance chuckle. "I am indeed hearing three of them right now!"

"This is not a matter for jokes, priestess." The gray pony admonished. "We are concerned for your humors."

"My humors shall summon the temple Battlehorns if you three are not more respectful towards the goddess." She kept her straight face.

"Alright, alright. There is no need for threats milady." Star Swirl offered a hoof in apology. "It is the case that Master Discord is concerned. You see, we have limitations to our minds and perceptions that he does not have."

Discord put on himself a kind of hat that wouldn't be invented for another couple of thousand years. "Indeed, my fair lady."

"Why are you still here?"

"Well, I actually have a question." Discord raised a finger.

The mare stared at him inhaling profoundly before exhaling and smiling pleasantly despite all the thoughts of murder and maiming she shared with Cadance. "Yes? How can a servant of Amore help you, Master Discord?"

"You say that you don't hear voices, but you speak to her… To Amore. And that she answers… Explain? I mean, I'm all about Chaos and I'm lost."

"The goddess speaks to us through our hearts, if a pony will merely listen to her. She is, the Lady of the Heart."

"I don't hear anything…" Rockhoof moved his ears around and made a confused expression.

_Maddening. This is maddening! Explain to them, Lilac. For the love of Harmony!_

Her priestess summoned all her patience at that moment and put forward her friendliest smile. "Young master, you cannot listen to the Lady with your ears. You must learn to quiet your mind and choose to listen to her within your heart. If you manage, which I sadly doubt, the Lady of the Heart will be so happy with you she would give you all the mares and stallions you would ever want. She will teach you what they like and how to treat them, and they will flock to such a strapping lad as yourself."

"That sounds very…" Star Swirl struggled for a second with his choice of words holding his chin in a hoof. "Disturbing. So, you actually believe you have a small pony inside your heart that speaks to you? I mean, I've heard of a pony speaking inside one's head, but…"

The priestess rubbed her forehead with a hoof. "This is why you males don't get laid as much as you want. You are so unbelievably clueless! Why don't you go bother the Children of the Sun?! Sol-Estia finds it cute to see her ponies being so stupid!"

"Wait! I have another question!" Discord waved at her.

"Will you leave if I answer?"

"Hum. I'm gonna say yes." He crossed his arms. "You know, you are not very friendly. I mean… In the Forum they are all friendly and like to listen to each other and discuss their problems, right? In the Sol Invictus they go and on about law and rulership and the military campaigns. In the Speculum Lunares they have those wild and crazy… Dare I say 'chaotic' debates about all sorts of philosophical mumbo-jumbo. What do you actually do here?"

"We worship the Lady of the Heart. Just as the others celebrate the Gifts given to us by our gods. Sol-Estia, The Mother gave us Life. Luccenoturna, The Sister gave us Intelligence. Amicizia, the Friend gave us Friendship. We worship Amore at the Cor Basilica, and thus, we celebrate Amore's Gift of Love."

"Yeah…" Discord groaned and blushed. "The image in my head is way above this story's age rating."

"Well, Master Discord, that is because you are an idiot." Lilac spat back while Rockhoof chuckled with red cheeks and Star Swirl was more interested in his inner thoughts holding his chin and frowning. His thoughts, however, were infuriatingly beyond Cadance's reach.

_ENOUGH!_

"I have to ask you to leave." Lilac spoke again.

Oh well, Cadance wanted them to talk more, but she was getting irritated at them. She felt like something important had happened or was about to happen, but she couldn't remember. And she wanted to see Daffodil again!

Another pony joined them. Though calling her a pony might have been improper. She was huge. Cadance had never seen such a huge unicorn in her life. She was as big as Princess Celestia, wearing an impressive heavy armor with plates shaped like leaves of a tree, all green and golden with a helmet that protected most of her head leaving space for a long and elegant horn and turned her red mane into an exuberant decorative crest.

She had that same expression that Cadance had seen in some Royal Guards that actually went to fight with the Princess in the Second Griffon War, and her armor let her beautiful chestnut coat show. Her tail bundled neatly thanks to the armor's magic. She wondered if the magic was the same as the one in the Royal Guard barding. It was possible.

The way the three grimaced and took a step back when she arrived even managed to make Cadance laugh in the middle of her confusing thoughts and emotions. She brought with her a powerful magical aura that rivaled Cadance's own.

"You three are hogging the statue of the Lady. Do you not know how to behave in sacred ground?" She barely kept from yelling at them. Cadance then noticed she brought with her an exuberant bouquet of daffodils. "Do you need assistance, _Pontifex_ Lilac?"

"No, Matriarch Flameheart. The three were just leaving."

"Wait!" Star Swirl gasped at her and pointed a hoof. "Is that an offering to Amore?"

"Yes." She said mater-of-factly. "If only the Lady would help my special somepony stop being so dense…"

He thought for several seconds. "But you are the matriarch of one of the most powerful houses in the Republic and Legate to one of the most successful Battlehorn Legions! Who would be stupid enough to not accept your affections?"

If she couldn't hear the big mare's whispering thoughts Cadance might have worried she might've murdered him right there. Instead she simply stared at him for a few moments before speaking again. "I do not know, Star Swirl. Maybe he is scared of big mares or maybe he has his muzzle so deep inside his hindquarters all he can think of are his studies and that stupid Mage's Guild and cannot notice that I love him or even that a strategic marriage would behoof him and his accursed guild!"

"Sounds like an idiot!" Star Swirl frowned and mused.

The big pony growled and shoved the flowers into Cadance's chest.

_Neigh! I forbid. His heart is thorny and icy to My touch and would turn yours to ashen badlands. Best you remain My faithful. Better days shall yet come for you, dear Cinnamon._

"You're the dumbest smart pony I know, Star Swirl." Discord growled at him.

Wait a second! Cadance was so enthralled in that conversation and in her mixed thoughts that she didn't even notice it for a while. That was Cinnamon Flameheart from the griffon's letter! Whatever happened when the letter said the Sisters had arrived was probably very close! What happened?

As though it answered to her question her mind transported her again, but this time much harsher and dramatically.

Immediately something was terribly wrong. She had stopped hearing most of the whispers inside her head, but now what remained of them cried and begged for help.

Cadance herself cried at the shock. The floor before her was stained with blood and one of her faithful laid dead before her. Her beautiful white dress ripped and stained crimson.

No! What happened? Outside the oat field was aflame and she could hear distant cries and sounds of fighting. Combat spells being cast left and right shook the ground. The blue sky was an inscrutable mess of disjointed mad colors. Magic itself drained from all around her, alarmingly fast, as though somepony had opened the drain on a pool.

The world was dying.

She jumped out and flew, and though pillars and walls meant nothing to her, she felt like flying through water. Magic was sick and the wind itself seemed to cackle, mocking her.

Outside of her Cor Basilica, the pink marble edification that it was mostly intact, but its grounds were littered with unmoving bodies and charred patches of stone told of powerful combat spells that had been cast. She gasped and shook her head. Soldiers, ponies of different colors and tribes, but most of them were sickly looking, with all their color drained from their coats. Dirty and malnourished.

She didn't want to stare too long at it, but turning the other side, the forest which covered the mounts burned and nowhere seemed safe for whatever little animals or ponies that lived there.

Sol-Estia's magnificent palace was in ruins and her gigantic golden statue of the alicorn goddess holding an orb and a scepter lied broken and crumbled in the riverbed bellow. Luccenotturna's beautiful blue palace was charred and the flames from within licked out the windows.

The city itself was in flames and even though her memory of it was flimsy at best, it could barely be imagined as the bustling metropolis it was. The fields that surrounded it all glowed like a macabre aura crowning it.

Ponies laughed though. It was an insane laughter that echoed in the… Day? Night? It simply froze her spine.

She could see them. An endless wave of mad ponies throwing themselves over each other around and into the flaming oat fields, through and around the little houses where the farmers once lived. It was horrifying! Those nice and beautiful ponies had turned into insane monstrosities.

On the other side of the field ponies rushed inside the city's tall walls and then the gates closed. The gate closest to the fields seemed to hold when the wave of insanity outside threw itself at it, and dozens upon dozens of ponies rushed up staircases behind the walls and fought to protect it. She was too far to see but she could see arrows flying along some elemental spells and other projectiles shooting downwards or eventually shooting at flying pegasi and other creatures that tried to pass the walls. They didn't fly very well and Candance wondered if whatever it was that Discord had done to them damaged their ability to fly.

The sight concerned her, but if the gate held, they might stand a chance. The walls and the gate itself seemed to be filled to the brim with protective spells that would reinforce it.

That was not the griffons' arrival nor Princess Celestia fixing the sun. This was earlier… When Discord tried to end the world.

Looking down to the streets she saw that some of those insane ponies had managed to invade the city. But she also saw that the streets had been blocked and that giant ponies that looked like Cinnamon held their advance. Small organized units cast powerful spells and cleared the streets wave after wave of chortling mad ponies threw improvised weapons or charged at them.

They held magical shields and cast spells, thundering through the streets and countering the insane babbling. Spell after spell they didn't seem to tire and behind their lines others of their own, all sharing the very same armor and variations of the same chestnut coat and red mane beat down doors.

They dragged panicking ponies outside and ushered them away towards the mountains behind the city. Other ponies wearing a lighter armor, mostly earth ponies and pegasi, but still of the same colors organized the panicking and fleeing ponies into groups and escorted them to safety. It was an organized and measured retreat of the panic-prone pony population from the city of the likes Cadance couldn't imagine happening without an organized force of disciplined soldiers making it happen. Ponies just panicked too easily.

Past the city itself its walls protected a valley and connected to a mountain beyond. It had been turned into a fortress. They carved it out of the solid rock and enchanted it with so much magic that it gleamed like a magical beacon shooting up into in the dark of mad colors in the sky, defiantly challenging it. Giant banners hung from its walls in multilayered defensive sectors, showing flaming hearts and purple stars. Cadance imagined those were the banners of those battlehorns that defended the city. The flaming heart was easy to deduce.

The waves of fleeing ponies, and other creatures met in the wider streets the chestnut soldiers had secured for them and they panicked amid magical explosions and crumbling buildings, but they ran in the right direction, towards the giant fortress.

Other parts of the city had already been overwhelmed and those mad creatures poured out of the houses but those soldiers had organized well their defensive lines and they allowed those monsters to funnel into areas where more of them could fight effectively and while they did others joined in casting a powerful spell that exploded the entire block. It was powerful magic, cast by feel of them.

A powerful wave of magical aftereffect and noise wafted over her and directed her attention to the walls that protected the valley, on the west side. A rolling prairie extended beyond the walls and the chain of smaller mountains until it met soft hills. The walls had a triple line of those giant unicorn battlehorns, all in shades of pink and purple with dark manes their armor turned to crests. Several lines of them held the area in front of the walls where what seemed like refugees ran inside in panic and flooded into the valley before the fortress.

The battlehorns held the incoming wave in a solid formation. Their big leaf-shaped shields alit with magic held like a solid wall and curved swords that could split a pony in half stabbed at those creatures. Laughing and screaming the mad ponies crashed against the combined wall of shields and magical barriers again and again, but it didn't waver. They were barely organized, the sort of thing those trained soldiers were proficient at fighting against.

The situation seemed desperate but seeing them fight almost made Cadance imagine they could win after all.

Above the wall horns charged with magic and the entire thing seemed like it was ablaze until it released in a wave of magical energy. The entire prairie exploded with magical energy. It was a high-energy but simple non-elemental spell of energy transfer washing over in a sequence of resonant magical blasts destroyed everything in its path.

Cadance once saw all the broadside cannons of one of their old warships from the Second Griffon War firing. It was a scary sound, to say the least. One that reverberated inside her lungs and she imagined that was the most terrifying sound she'd ever hear. It paled in comparison to the combined magic of those unicorns.

In a moment of peace, magical flares shot up from the wall and illuminated the prairie and hills and they moved in the soft light. The sight horrified Cadance and she took her hooves to her mouth with a small cry. The hills didn't move, they crawled with insane creatures ravenously running towards the city. They were too many to count and there was a dragon surrounded by other flying creatures coming at the city.

Just as soon the battlehorns were done repelling the initial attack another wave approached amid psychotic cries and laughter. The unicorns atop the wall bombarded the prairie with magic again, but were forced to start shooting magical missiles, small packets of energy at pegasi that flew over the wave to attack the line of soldiers below.

It was too much. Every instinct in her, inculcated from all the lessons in military strategy told her that the city was lost and that they needed to evacuate it and flee outside, not into the fortress, as mighty as it seemed. But she realized that they didn't have anywhere to go, that was the last stand. A creeping fear threated to overwhelm her. There was no way they could ever survive. She wanted to do something. Anything to help, but all she could really do was cause ponies to fall in love and they didn't even listen to her anymore. She begged something, anything to help them, but nothing answered.

Then she heard a magical beacon someone had cast. It rose above the city and showed a flaming heart. A pegasus flew from a rich mansion in the western area of the city and towards a tall bridge where a group of ponies in light barding fought against a continuous stream of Discord's mad ponies. Too much happened at the same time for her to keep up, but pegasi flew everywhere and it seemed like an order to retreat but the movement drew her attention and she saw several of the chestnut soldiers leaving the mansion. They jumped over the low hedge and galloped full sprint down the street. Was that Matriarch Cinnamon Flameheart?

Cadance rushed to follow her, flapping wings against the weird magic and galloping in the air as tough that might help but managed to catch up to the matriarch and her soldiers. It struck her as curious that they were all similar colors and it also occurred to her that Flameheart was a surname. It was probably thousands of years since they stopped using those in Equestrian history. Probably something related to bloodlines. That was the pony the griffon mentioned in his letter, but this was Discord's defeat and not the arrival of the griffon army. That would still take some years. Something didn't seem right. If Celestia and Luna were supposed to have defeated Discord… But they can't have been born yet. As was becoming usual, something didn't add up. There was yet another piece of the puzzle to find.

The ponies she followed kept on racing through the streets and one of the younger spoke to their leader. "Mother, what is our plan?"

"The Farmland Gate cannot fall. If it does, The Lost will overwhelm the City Guard and the First Legion by the West Wall. But if there is one pony inside this city that cannot be allowed to die it is the Archmage. We have to keep the gate at all costs until they have withdrawn their forces and the Archmage and his students have reached safety in the Citadel! We have to hope that Lieutenant Pansy can reach him in time. The tall Bridge is not that far."

Other of Cinnamon's Battlehorns joined, peeking out from the secondary streets and uniting with the group in their mad gallop down the street. Several groups of them joined and one of the big mares approached Cinnamon. "Matriarch, the Second and Fourth _Auxilia Alae_ and _Equitata_ volunteered to hold the line in the city and evacuate the civilians from the south districts. It is a mess families and merchants from the market managed to reach the Forum and the priests barricaded the temple. They are all being moved to the Citadel right now."

She shook her head with her ears down. "I don't understand what happened. There is not a single Brightmane in sight."

Cinnamon frowned, but it wasn't a frown of worry, as Cadance might've expected. It was pure contained wrath. "The Brightmanes left their estate and took all their possessions. They never gave the order to evacuate, much less deployed their house's soldiers. They went straight to safety in the Citadel and sabotaged the Farmland Gate."

Her soldier seemed incredulous. "What would they gain from leaving harmless civilians and temple priests to the mercy of The Lost?"

"They knew we would come to assist." Cinnamon said. "I, however, do not think they expected the First Legion to still hold the West Wall. Still, had they managed to destroy the gate unknown, the Lost would swarm this entire side of the city and likely would overrun the First Legion trying to get the refugees inside."

Her daughter grimaced fiercely. "They seek to murder us!"

"That is why the Archmage must be kept safe. The Founding Council cannot be trusted, and I would not be surprised if they arranged to murder the Senate. The Archmage will be the only thing standing in their way after this night."

They galloped in silence through the main street where neat stone and wood houses flanked it on both sides, but they were empty now. Potted plants that once decorated then were turned on their sides and broken. Abandoned carts in the middle of the street still full of produce and the air was hot and full of smoke, but at least there seemed to be no forgotten or abandoned ponies in that section of the city.

Then a loud blast rocked the ground and toppled one of the statues of pretty mares holding vases in the plaza ahead. Ponies screamed and poured into the plaza coming from the left while pegasi scattered everywhere. Some skipped and fell being trampled by others in their panicked dash. All ponies wearing leather barding. At least one or two stopped to help or took the way towards the fortress, but the majority spread in every which way.

"No! Go south, to the Citadel!" Cinnamon cried. "Cardamom, stay here and send these idiots towards the Citadel!"

"Ma'am!" Her daughter halted, skipping a little in the stone road while the others rushed past her following Cinnamon to the plaza where they turned left in the middle of the panicking and confused ponies, entering the street that led directly to the gate Cadance had seen before.

Ponies were still fighting from the top of the wall, shooting magic or arrows downward to the other side or at the pegasi that tried approaching from the air. The gate had a large diagonal crack on its left door and threatened to buckle under the assault from outside. The insane laughter had become a bizarre cacophony of terror and every time the gate creaked more and more ponies that were behind it panicked and ran towards the plaza.

Cadance flew above and screamed when half the gate finally collapsed and a mass of insane creatures that once were ponies poured in like a wave on top of whatever was in the way. Whatever semblance of formation broke, and ponies stampeded away while she could see a few of them that cowered and turned before her eyes. She didn't understand the process of how it happened, but it was like a second wave claiming those too paralyzed with fear to run.

They poured in so fast the access to the top of the walls and towers were overran and the ponies at the top couldn't escape and started panicking too, still under attack from the flying Lost. Pegasi that managed to fly were dragged down when one or another of the Lost latched onto them.

Cadace instincts kicked her mind into action and she wanted to help, but there wasn't much that she could other than make ponies fall in love or scream and go unheard.

Then she saw Cinnamon and her battlehorns coming from the plaza, in the middle of the fleeing ponies, dodging, and jumping their way towards the gate while every other pony in there was trying to flee from it.

"Destroy them!" Cinnamon roared and their horns started glowing and shooting magical missiles at the Lost while they telekinetically grabbed their swords and shields from their backs.

Cinnamon however reared on her hindlegs, with all the weight of her armor and her horn released a fiery wave of magic that disintegrated the insane creatures and then her soldiers rushed past her, stabbing and kicking the Lost that had managed to grab a hold of the fleeing ponies. Following that they quickly formed a wall of alit magical leaf shaped shields and blocked the entrance while others hunted down and killed the scattered Lost or carved a path to the ponies in the top of the wall and shot magic at the flyers.

Others still replaced the gate on its hinges and used their magic to repair and reinforce it.

One of the fleeing ponies, a panting cyan and pink earth pony wearing leather barding, no weapon, stopped by Cinnamon and grabbed her one of her legs. "Thank you, Matriarch! Thank you so much!"

"Go to the Citadel! And find your courage, guard." She told the pony softly. "Find your sisters and brothers. Equestria still stands until the last of us exhales for the last time and it is our duty to defend her."

"Ma'am." She stood and then rushed away to the plaza while Cadance saw Cinnamon looking at her like a concerned mother.

Some of her battlehorns worked to reinforce the gate and others had climbed the stairs to the top of the wall and shot magic at the flyers. That worried Cadance. If the walls were not defended properly there was nothing stopping one third of the Lost from simply flying into the city. This place, even if the gate held now, would be overwhelmed soon. The city was lost, she supposed that two thirds of them still would need to walk in.

Then her actual daughter came from the plaza. "Everypony is on their way. A pegasus from the First came to deliver the message that Grimoire has ordered all her battlehorns to the Citadel's walls. No news of Master Swirl yet."

Cadance gasped. Yes, that was right. Star Swirl was the Archmage!

The lost were back to banging against the gate and cackle outside. Cinnamon looked at the gates shinning with magical amber light, chains and more magic where it had broken. Her soldiers atop the wall seemed to have the situation under control.

"We will keep this place secure for as long as we can until we are sure that Star Swirl has made it to the Citadel."

"Mother, nopony knows we are here. They will not send a messenger to warn us." Cadance didn't think she seemed afraid, merely worried.

"Then we will stay here until we die! Discord's madness will claim me before I or one of my daughters fall to cowardice in the line of duty!"

Before the other could reply a group of battlehorns from another family teleported in. All in shades of green under their green and golden leaf plated barding. One of them took the front. "Matriarch Flameheart!"

"Who are you? Mintleaf?"

"Yes ma'am!" She straightened. "Aqua Mintleaf. The Twelveth Legion, First Cohort, First Centurion."

"I thought your legion was destroyed in Neighpolis." Cinnamon's daughter spoke.

"We are what remained of the Mintleafs." She shook her head. "But that is not important! You must retreat to the Citadel immediately!"

"No." Cinnamon shook her head. "We must hold this gate until Master Swirl has reached the Citadel. His survival is all that matters."

"I was with him at the Tall Bridge. He is already on his way with a whole detachment of city guards. You must survive too, Matriarch. Whatever happens this night he will need faithful allies and you will need all the Flamehearts that can survive." Her stare darkened for a moment. "The real enemy lies within, Matriarch. And I fear the Bluebloods might attempt against his life if he is by his own."

Cinnamon frowned and nodded softly before Aqua went on. "We will guard this gate. There is not much that we can do by ourselves. You are more important and must go. Now."

Cinnamon nodded again, more certain this time. "Thank you, Aqua Mintleaf."

"Praise your Loyalty, Battlehorn. And think of home." They kicked their armors together right above their hooves with a clank. "Your Matriarch will be proud of you when you find her on the other side."

Then she turned towards the plaza. "Flamehearts!"

The chestnut soldiers folowed their matriarch after mimicking her gesture with the others and Mintleafs replaced them in defending the wall. Cadance watched as a procession of green colored ponies took positions known full well that they wouldn't survive more than a few hours, all so that Cinnamon could find her way back to safety. Trying to buy just a little more time so that their battlehorn sisters from other families could drag a couple more scared ponies to safety. So that Star Swirl and Cinnamon could make it to whatever safety the Citadel could provide in the middle of this madness.

And perhaps the worst of it all was that Discord was so far gone that he couldn't see this gallant sacrifice. Cadance wanted to cry but her form didn't seem capable of it even if her throat squeezed.

The stories of these ponies deserved to be told so that modern ponies understood what they stood on. All of them. From those ponies that challenged the magical storm and settled the land to these ponies that sacrificed themselves so that Equestria might survive.

She couldn't stay with Aqua and her sisters, though. She must go to the Citadel and find Star Swirl, so she took flight in the sticky and awkward magic that surrounded and tried picking up speed above the city.

Undefended, city walls wouldn't hold these nightmarish creatures and now that one of the ways in would open as soon as Aqua and the other fell they would swarm the city much faster so she flew as fast as she could to the fortress.

Down in the streets Cinnamon called to her soldiers and those who could galloped to join her in the main street. Others weren't so lucky, dragged down by the Lost or staying behind, trying to help somepony left behind. It was a madness as though Cadance had never seen. It was unfair and cruel. It was an abuse. Discord knew too well what he was doing. Even if the Farmland Gate held, it would only delay the inevitable.

To make it worse, she still heard cries for help in her head, powerless to assist and tried to ignore them the best she could until she reached the fortress.

It was beautiful and majestic, especially with all the magic it exuded in the form of countless defensive spells woven into its walls, but she didn't feel like examining them. She was exhausted of the whole emotional journey.

She simply passed over her walls looking for Star Swirl. If he really used that hat of his, it shouldn't be too hard. She wanted to, at least make sure he had made it. And he did, and the first thing she saw was indeed his hat.

He sat in the middle of the innermost courtyard, looking tired, among an agglomerated mass of ponies, citizens that had made it. Each one of those could've been a battlehorn that didn't make it because they were trying to stop the Lost and save those helpless ponies. How many of them died or turned to corrupted monsters?

An earth pony offered him something to drink and he smiled back at the pony and accepted his drink. A group of city guards gravitated towards him like he was their source of safety.

Cadance studied Star Swirl closer upon landing. He looked a bit older, but he still seemed strong and handsome. He was tired though. It was a shame he couldn't hear her. In a brief moment of calm and collectedness, Cadance wanted to tell him that somehow everything would end up fine. She wanted to tell him of how beautiful and happy Equestria was in her time. That they made it, somehow.

Then somepony called him and he looked up in time for a very young and frantic blue earth pony with a tall red mane-do and a green dress to assault him with a hug.

"Meadowbrook!" He smiled as though the life had returned to him and then hugged her again. "I swear to everything that is good… You made it! Where are the others?"

Cadance smiled. She knew who Meadowbrook was. One of the great heroes of the past, of course. She was glad she wasn't made up or something.

"They made it too! They are doing what they can to help around the fortress. Are you hurt?"

"No, friend. But thank you."

Then another pony approached them. "Oh, thank goodness you are unharmed, Master Star Swirl!"

Cadance first giggled at that very young Meadowbrook hiding behind Star Swirl, but them stared to see a white and silver unicorn wearing a blue silver hemmed cape and a silver and amethyst crown. She was gorgeous and elegant. A bit haughty, very Rarity-like in Cadance's eyes. She certainly talked and walked with the same expressive mannerisms and sophistication. But certainly not the same calm 'superiority'. This one was a bit of a bitch.

"Not unharmed, Lady Platinum… But I wager I will survive."

That was Princess Platinum? Cadance blinked a few times.

He stood to meet her with a respectful bow of his head. Next to her came two other unicorns. First a big unicorn, not like the battlehorns, but normal-size large. He had an exuberant golden mane and medium beard that made Cadance think of gold, and those green eyes of his were enchanting. Very handsome, but he didn't strike her as a very nice pony. He wore a beautiful white armor and a cape that didn't seem to have seen a smidgeon of combat recently.

"I am glad you have survived, friend." He spoke without an ounce of sincerity. It made Cadance cringe a little.

"Indeed, Magnus." Star Swirl hardened his stare. "Say… How fares your family? I have not seen a single Blueblood or Brightmane soldier helping defend the streets today."

That was Magnus Brightmane, the regent of Everfree in the griffon's letter. She imagined his foals mentioned in the letter weren't born yet.

"They were, of course, assisting with the evacuation of our esteemed senators, Master Swirl." The third pony spoke as he approached them, closer to Platinum and next to Magnus. Cadance had never seen such an old and decrepit white unicorn wearing so much jewelry. It's like they had become part of him or something! His mane looked well cared for, in a graying shade of blue.

"Unfortunately, they were ambushed by the Lost and none survived." He concluded sitting with an insincere sorrowful sigh and a shrug.

Cadance couldn't believe what she saw. Chrysalis had told them that they had betrayed Equestria, but… What did they expect to gain? The world was literally ending! And they were so callous about it. So… Unrepentant, like they didn't even see they were causing more trouble than there already was. Was that a calculated risk to them?

Star Swirl though seemed like he had some things to tell them but chose not to. He seemed tired and Cadance pitied him. Again, she wanted to tell him that everything would be fine. That they made it. She didn't know how. Maybe they'll hold on long enough. Maybe Discord will give up. She knew that Celestia and Luna were supposed to have defeated him with the Elements of Harmony but she didn't see how that would be possible at the time.

Thinking of the Sisters caused her to think back to ponies worshiping them and how that whole affair felt. What were the others doing? She assumed that they were around too. Somehow? She had to remind herself that she was dreaming. Or experiencing a vision of an old memory. Was the… Lady. Amore. Was she going around doing what she was? Will something happen that will cause the Sisters to… She didn't know… Appear?

No more time for introspection. Cinnamon arrived.

"You!" She roared from behind Cadance who turned with the scare, but the huge unicorn walked through her and grabbed Magnus Brightmane by his armor. "What have you done?"

Her armor was stained with blood and she seemed tired, if furious.

"The Matriarch will forgive me." He said calmly. "I do not know of what you speak."

"You treacherous dog! I have been to the Brightmane estate and there is not a single scratch on the walls and not one of your treasures left behind. You were supposed to lead the evacuation of the Senate and the whole south-west areas and bring them here! Because of you my battlehorns were forced into the city to draw out the civilians that never knew to run! And I also have witnesses that you had the Farmland Gate sabotaged! I hope the Goddesses too witness your vile backstabbing, and I swear I will see you suffer for this!"

"The Goddesses are dead!" He freed himself of her grasp and Cadance felt slighted. "Look around you! If we survive, we will need whatever riches we can muster to rebuild!"

"I would be more careful, matriarch." By the way she spoke Cadance wondered if Platinum almost spilled all her venom by mistake while she hoofed at Magnus' armor, as if dusting it. "You see… Somepony needs to rule the land, and it typically is the one with more money and more brawn. Or at least more brains."

She sat and made a gesture with a hoof. "It seems to me that your ladyship is at a disadvantage."

"Not if I execute all of you spiteful devils for treason right now!" Her horn lit up and Cadance, considering what she'd seen those ponies doing closed her eyes, but instead of a splatter of blown up pony, she heard Star Swirl's voice.

"Cinnamon." She held her magic. Ponies around them seemed scared. Terrified. Even Meadowbrook, hiding behind Star Swirl. "This is not the time. They need us to be together. They need leadership right now, not justice. And when this comes to a conclusion, I may need ponies I can trust."

And then somepony called from the top of the walls. "The Lost have reached the valley! They come!"

There was a wave of panicked cries, but Star Swirl adjusted his hat and summoned his gleaming sword to his magical grasp. "At least we can believe that their soldiers will join the defense of the Citadel. If that is not too much to ask."

"Why, of course, Master Star Swirl." Magnus answered, all magnanimous. "Our armed ponies are at your beck and call."

Then the old gray unicorn turned to Meadowbrook. "Find the others. We will need industrious and good ponies when this is all over. Be safe. Survive."

"But… Star Swirl… You need to survive too. Who will care for the sun and moon if you fall?" She asked innocently.

He frowned, lost in thought for a second. "Damnit girl. One world-ending problem at a time. Mad God today. Sun tomorrow."

Cadance gasped. Did Star Swirl know that things would go wrong with the sun? How? Meadowbrook didn't know whatever it was that he knew. He looked so strong though. How maddening it must have been for him to know that even if they somehow managed to survive all of this, they would still have to deal with another problem. Maybe just as ghastly and seemingly unsolvable.

The walls seemed gigantic from the ground and they had a few ponies on top of them, though Cadance figured the majority of the combatants would be in the first wall. The large doors remained open after they passed and Cinnamon and those few city guards followed Star Swirl past the gates of each section of the fortress and Cadance followed along. Each section more filled than the last with scared ponies, yaks, griffons, kirin, hippogriff and even a few dragons.

Families grouped together, naked ponies or well-dressed ones with dirt all over their fancy togas and dresses along with creatures of all races. This city really was the center of the world, like Chrysalis had said.

Some groups of them held weapons and stood together. Some manner of old sword, rusty spear, some family heirloom armor or anything that could be used to fight. Star Swirl never called them though, they simply followed. Fathers, mothers, sons or daughters, old and young they left their families in the middle of tears and inconsolable crying behind each gateway.

That was not how ponies were supposed to be! Couldn't Discord see all the suffering he was causing? Why didn't he see that they still found the strength to resist, to protect the others? How much of that was simply survival, though? Maybe they weren't as selfless as Cadance imagined if ponies like Magnus existed and maybe that was the problem?

She had resigned to simply watch and hope it would all be over soon. That they didn't suffer too much because she knew that better days would come, and they didn't deserve that pain.

Before the staircase to the first line of defense Star Swirl found two young unicorns waiting for him. One scrawny grey male with blue mane cut short wearing a simple cape and the other a slightly older white and blue unicorn wearing a light metal blue armor that had a cluster of grapes in its chest. Definitively a Blueblood, Cadance decided.

The old mage smiled again. "Clover. Stygian."

Both were worried, the one Cadance recognized as Clover the Clever and also a Blueblood spoke first. "We are here for you, Master."

"Tell us what you need."

Star Swirl took one long look at Stygian before he spoke gesturing over the creatures that had followed him. "Take these creatures. Rally all the non-combatants and take them to the vault. It is the safest and deepest place in the Citadel. And defend it. They must survive. You must survive. Whatever way this ends Equestria will need good ponies that understand Harmony."

Clover grabbed a medallion from inside his barding and hoofed it over to Stygian. It was a silver medallion with amethysts forming a cluster of grapes. "Lord Brightmane stashed all his gold in there and Blueblood guards are watching it. Show this to them and they will obey you."

The other simply took the medallion and nodded, then left before he said anything.

Star Swirl resumed his walk and didn't ask, but Clover followed him, as did Cinnamon. Along the way, up the wide stairs meant for troops to quickly go up and down he found two more ponies waiting for him. Both earth ponies wearing rich togas. One a light purple male and the other a happy looking sand colored female with green mane.

"I guess this is it, huh?" Said the light purple one.

"Aw, this is not so bad." The other added with an awkward smile. "I mean… We are still alive, right?"

"I am glad you have come." The Mage told then while they followed him up. "I would like to imagine that the old friendships still count."

"They always did, Star." Purple lowered his head. "Things got out of hoof. But we always tried our best."

When they finally reached the top of the walls the first thing Cadance, next to them, saw was as a stout line of pegasi in black and gold armor, armed with long spears in front of the giant purple shaded unicorns that looked kind of weird in their green and gold armor. They looked so powerful and invincible, but their formation wasn't so sharp as before.

Two pegasi came from the middle of their formation. A dark grey with white mane, big and imposing, and the other a yellow, less impressive male with flame-y mane, the same one Cadance had seen earlier, flying toward the bridge to talk to Star Swirl. The first saluted boastfully with a wing and chest thrust forward. "House Stormcloud, at your service, Master Swirl!"

"For whatever good we can do… We are not in our best shape." He admitted, but still confident.

"Well, I am happy you are here Hurricane." Star Swirl smiled again, then the other who Cadance supposed was Pansy peeked out from behind his superior.

"Matriarch Sparkle is waiting for you, Master Swirl. Down the line."

Sparkle… Of course, Cadance groaned to herself.

Independent of her feelings, the two pegasi joined Star Swirl and they walked forward between the pegasi and unicorns until they found the first Flameheart battlehorn, the one that had called Cinnamon 'mother' earlier. And next to her was a very old battlehorn all purple standing proudly in her armor. Really, she looked more like a big and old Twilight without wings to Cadance and it was kind of freaking her out in the middle of all that insane dream.

But also, next to her was the blue caped white unicorn that was Platinum. Star Swirl sat next to her and the magical flares in the sky allowed them to see the whole valley swarming with mad ponies and other creatures, laughing and guffawing like they mocked them, but sitting still, like they waited for something.

"Well, at least somepony is having fun…" Clover frowned at the sound.

"I do not believe they are having much fun, cousin." Platinum said.

"Star Swirl?" 'Big Twilight' said suddenly.

"Yes, Grimoire?"

"Why is she here?" She nodded at the white unicorn while staring forward.

"I do not know. Why do you not ask her yourself?"

Platinum groaned and huffed uncomfortably. "I am still a competent spellcaster. Independent of anything."

"I did not ask…" 'Big Twilight' Grimoire said drily and rose an eyebrow.

Still… Cadance recognized several ponies with Blueblood armor marked with their grapes right next to them, armed with spears and swords. It seemed like she had brought what she could.

"Thank you for being here, Platinum." Star Swirl said, again with a smile.

"Well, do not presume I am here because I like any of you. I simply... Well, I must be here. I can help. It is my duty. You know…"

Star Swirl smiled a little more warmly. "I understand, Platinum. You do not have to say a thing."

"So…" Sandy earth pony female began while she stared down at the sea of madness with her ears dropped. "What? Do we summon the Fire of Friendship, or something?"

"I do not think that we can, Smart Cookie. Not anymore." The other replied miserably with his ears folded down.

"Right… Our superweapon 'I win' lever is _fractus_. This is actually a military operation… Who is in command?" Grimoire stared at them. "The whole Senate is gone, and you ponies are the Founder's Council."

"What do you mean who is in command?" Hurricane looked at her with a frown. "You are Legate of the First Legion!"

"Haha… That is rich. I told you dumb flanks that Discord was bad news! But did any one listen to the crazy old mare? Noooooo. Let us have fun! Just a few more pranks… It is not that bad… Suddenly it is 'Oh no! The world is going to end'! Well, I told you so! Dragons? Sure. Griffons? We can deal with them. Yak berserkers? Fine. But insane ponies that keep laughing and coming at you if you put them on fire, neigh! That is too much! The Sparkles are done saving your flanks."

Cinnamon giggled. "Put Star Swirl in charge. He is the one that befriended the Mad God."

It was so weird seeing her giggle. Cadance supposed that Star Swirl brought the best out of ponies. Like certain ponies she knew.

"So, how do we win this, Star Swirl?" Puddinghead asked him.

"We cannot." He said it as simply and flatly as was possible and it hit Cadance like a kick to the stomach. "We must hold on. Endure for as long as we can and hope that if this comes to an end with ponies still alive, they have a decent chance at surviving."

Cinnamon pulled back her ears and frowned. "Well, I take that back! Let us come up with a better strategy."

"We failed… Did we not?" The big and confident pegasus let his wings sag down and his ears too. "We should have the power to stop this, but we lost it."

Platinum, next to Star Swirl, sniffed and then sobbed. "It was not supposed to be like this!"

He held her close with a leg over her shoulders and she closed her eyes, hiding her eyes with a hoof and sobbing quietly. It broke Cadance's heart. When would one find another being so despicable and reproachable and then have such sympathy for them in such a short amount of time? It seemed as though the weight of whatever happened finally hit her and it was too much.

"What can we do against our own kind turned against us in the most vile and corrupted way possible?" She heard Star Swirl whisper more to himself than anyone else. "Because of something we did not understand, and we cannot fix?"

He frowned and Cadance wished she could hear his thoughts other than the incessant cries in her head. Finally, he rubbed Platinum's mane softly. "There is no failure until it ends, general. And we are not done yet."

The others stared at him. Their heads were low, and the color had finally drained from their coats, but their ears perked up at his words. He took a step forward to the edge of the wall, supporting his weight with a hoof on the battlements and his horn shone.

"Discord!" His magically enhanced voice echoed in the valley below and Cadance stared with her mouth hanging, it was one of those moments time seemed to stop.

He appeared. A floating stage with spotlights and one smug draconequus wearing a smoking, bowing, and tipping his hat. "_Bonsoir, mes amis!_ Tonight, we have… The End of the World! And you have the privileged seats! Enjoy."

Then he became angry. "You've earned it."

"What are you doing, Discord? We used to be friends!"

"We were… Weren't we?" He became sad for an instant. "You guys had a good thing going. You formed an empire in some fifty years. It's a shame."

"Give us another chance, then."

"Oh no!" Discord laughed. "This is your second chance! You should not have survived the Windigos! You failed. Like F-. Bombed!"

Cadance imagined they didn't understand those words from him, but Star Swirl shook his head and spoke plainly. "You have won then. We cannot defeat you and wish to discuss the terms of our surrender."

What? Cadance's thoughts were mimicked in all of their faces, including the soldiers and the mad ponies below in the valley. But most of all in Discord's that soon turned to his mocking laughter.

"What are you doing?" Platinum barked at him.

"Star, I'm the crazy one. Not you." Grimoire gawked at him.

Cinnamon didn't say anything, she simply looked at his friend and waited, as did Cadance, but Star Swirl remained stoic.

"Oh, this is rich!" Discord laughed again, wiping a tear from his eye. "You want to discuss surrender. How amusing!"

"Give us another chance!" Star Swirl pleaded. "We do not understand what we did wrong!"

"Oooh! You do! Oh, yes, you do!" He turned angry again. "You are broken! You don't deserve this world! It was made for better creatures than you are!"

"Says who?"

"I do!" He started pointing his finger at ponies next to Star Swirl. "Vain, petty and Selfish! Coward! Murderer! Corrupt! Traitor! The list goes on and gets creepier and creepier. But most important of all…"

Finally, he narrowed his eyes. "Liar."

He opened his arms. "You've caused so much Chaos because of your greed that you've summoned me! You've poisoned Harmony with your corrupted magic! I told you! You are on overtime! The Windigos ought to have ended it all. That is why we are doing this. Once you all are gone, we can try again!"

"What about you?" His hoof shot at Discord who gasped. "Does any of this madness look like Harmony to you?"

Yes! Star Swirl is right! Cadance nodded enthusiastically and held her hooves next to her and his words put a fire under the ponies next to him. Angry hooves clopped on the stone and shouts accused Discord of hypocrisy.

"I am fixing the problem that you ponies created!" He shouted, angry and gesturing like a foal about to have a temper tantrum.

"No! you are not!" Star Swirl cried again. "Your method lacks kindness! It lacks generosity! It destroys rather than correct! These ponies have repented of their mistakes and you fail to see this! You are wrong! You are not an agent of Harmony to punish us or repair the world! You are an insane monster with too high an opinion of yourself!"

"You can't judge me!" Discord's slighted face would've made Cadance laugh in any other situation. "That is not how this works!"

"I will not deny that we have made mistakes. I will not deny that perhaps we deserve to be destroyed. But our accusation is too harsh, and we cannot defend against it! You demand virtue of us yet offers none back simply because you have the power to force your decision! And I will tell you more: we are better than you are, and we may not be perfect or strong enough to defeat you, but you are a tyrant worth rebelling against and I will fight you until I cannot fight anymore!"

The entire fortress reacted with pure furor. Shields clanked on the stone and hooves too. The whole valley reverberated with a hurrah worthy of the best epics Cadance has ever read. It managed to make her spirit soar and grin excitedly. Cadance didn't fully understand the problem. She didn't know what those ponies had done, but she knew that, clear as Celestia's day that they regretted it, that Discord was wrong, and that Star Swirl was right!

"Fine! It's not like you can change any of what is about to happen anyway!" Discord snapped his fingers and pointed at the fortress. "Destroy them! Everything back to the beginning!"

He vanished with triumphant laughter, but Discord's Lost resumed their inane cackling and literally started throwing themselves against the wall. Cadance didn't need much reassuring that it wouldn't work, but they climbed over each other and it wouldn't be too long before they flooded the fortress' walls. They were tall but not that much.

"Congratulations, master." Clover stared sarcastically at him. "You have successfully enraged the Mad God."

Cinnamon facehoofed and groaned. "Please tell me you have a plan, Star Swirl."

"Discord wants to return everything to the beginning. I have no idea how that works or how it even is possible, and he may be insane, but he is intelligent. There is a reason he has turned our folk into these things: he is forcing us to kill them or be killed, or worse, corrupted. By that logic, whatever event he wants to trigger will do so if enough ponies die."

"I am following!" Grimoire said expectantly. "What else?"

"How do we stop him?" Cinnamon's eyebrow rose.

"As I said, we cannot stop this. I hope that somepony was listening." He said seriously. "I hope that Lady of the Heart of yours is real."

Wait! She was! She was right there! She landed close to him and waved frantically. How could she help?! She urged and begged, but he wouldn't hear her.

At the same time Cinnamon was furious. "What? You are a believer now?"

"No!" He said. "I do not believe in faith, gods and charms or popular willy-nilly beliefs. I am not even entirely sure I believe in Harmony as an intelligent force, but I believe in Magic! I have studied it my whole life and I know there are very powerful beings such as the Windigos and Discord that we managed to bring into our world because we did something that interfered with the normal workings of Magic."

"I do not understand how it works… I have not a clue if this will work. But if there is something out there, or in here that wants to help us, it better figure out how to with the utmost urgency or they are going to run out of ponies alarmingly fast!"

Cadance sighed. Easier said than done had never been so true. Come on! She was right there!

Platinum grabbed and shook him. "But what are we supposed to do?!"

He pointed down the wall. "Protect this fortress! It must hold for as long as it can!"

"But if we kill them, we will help Discord!" She insisted.

"The gates will not resist forever!" He pointed down again. "If they get in, they will corrupt the others inside and he will win all the same. There is not a lot that we can do other than defend ourselves. The important thing is that we manage to keep those ponies inside safe! For as long as we can… Until something happens! I know! It is a desperate shot in the dark, but it is all we have!"

"Very well, Sparkles!" Grimoire barked. "You heard the crazy wizard. Yadda, yadda… Epic Discourse number thirty-four, variation B for siege defenses. You know the drill. Kindly kill those things."

Another of the Sparkle Battlehorns, a lighter shade of purple looked down the wall. "Conserve your stamina. I do not think they will be downing the gate anytime soon and they are countless."

Cadance watched with no small measure of awe while the disciplined unicorns charged their horns with magic in unison and unleashed whatever the name of that spell was over the valley where the Lost congregated before the fortress and bombarded it with magical explosions like they had done before from the outer walls of the city. And then again. And again. Each time shaking the ground with their magic just for the Lost to fill the valley with even more of them.

And then something started to seem odd. Hurricane seemed to have thought that too, as he spoke with Star Swirl almost the same as Cadance was thinking. "Something is not right, Star Swirl."

"Yes…" The old unicorn agreed thoughtfully.

"He has attacked other cities and forts with dragons and there were sightings of Ursa Majors."

Cadance nodded. She was sure she saw a dragon.

"I do not like this." The pegasus concluded.

Cadance sat by the battlements and rested her hooves on then, looking around apprehensively, moving her ears from side to side. Something really didn't seem right. It was a strange feeling that she never experienced before.

Then it happened, just as though Discord had snapped his fingers the walls lost their gleam and what followed were cries from both sides on top of the walls of ponies surprised that they can't focus magic in their horns. Next to her Star Swirl experimented and his own horn did little more than a few sparks.

"Well, this is concerning." He said. He could still hold his sword with his telekinesis. "Is he somehow disrupting our magic?'

Grimoire growled at her second in command. Cadance didn't know the title, but it was a pony that got things done. "I do not know what he is doing, but he is pissing me off! Get our _velites_ to redeploy to the top of the wall and draw swords! We shall protect them."

"You heard the mare! Move it!" Cinnamon told her own and ponies started moving around the top of the wall, going down and up the stairs while she turned to Platinum. "Get your ponies to the accesses to the inner walls. If we need to retreat, they must keep a clear path for us!"

"What she said! Get to it!" The white unicorn yelled at her house's soldiers behind the battlehorns and grabbed a sword out of one of them, following behind.

Hurricane's pegasi took flight with him and Pansy, spears at the ready at the right moment when Lost pegasi started making their way towards the top of the wall. It was a swarm of insanity coming over the wall like a tsunami. A few archers fired from behind, from the next defensive wall, but they weren't very effective in the dark, despite the torches on the battlements. For the moment, defending the top of the wall fell over the pegasi and their spears.

Ponies ran everywhere reorganizing their defenses and Cadance took a moment to pay attention to the magic around her. She could barely feel it. She gasped that Star Swirl was right that it was what Discord wanted, but he was not disrupting their magic, magic itself was fading. Discord might have been crazy, but he was right that killing them is going to cause the whole system to… Fail. It made sense, by what she'd seen… Ponies brought their magic to the world and controlled it. She supposed that something was supposed to happen then and maybe restart the whole process of creation? The whole idea of killing all the ponies… All the creatures to start over was gruesome, but it made some sense. She had to remember that Discord wasn't acting normal. He was… Sick was the best word she could come up.

But how did she fit into it all? Amore, The Lady of the Heart. The Throne of Love? Those other doors?

Suddenly something pulled at her and she gasped. The cries in her head suddenly returned to the forefront of her mind and simply focusing on her thoughts was near impossible and with a splitting headache worse than those of her days bearing Flurry Heart. She took her hooves to her head and it didn't help much because she couldn't even feel her touch on herself.

"Ow…" She whined to herself and returned her eyes to the battlements at the top of the wall. The Lost literally climbed on top of each other to reach the top of the wall. Star Swirl spun his sword at one of them and it fell by the wayside, soon to be replaced with another. His staff laid on the floor, uselessly by his side. Ponies with the Sparkle and Flameheart armors threw javelins at the still coming pegasi and even some griffons among the Lost. The battlehorns from both lineages cut at them with their swords but they started to tire. Their armor had lost nearly all its magic and to make things worse the mad creatures threw themselves at the swords and pulled them away. Their weakened magic couldn't keep up and they started seeing themselves overwhelmed.

"Discord stop!" Cadance cried, still holding her head.

To her surprise, he appeared again, in the sky, overlooking the whole scene. "Don't worry your pretty little head."

Did he… Talk to her? She looked up to him with her ears down. "Soon this will all be over, and they won't even remember a thing. Creation will begin anew, and you will have another chance."

Something pulled down at her again and it was like magic itself was trying to rip her apart. She screamed this time and had to rebalance her weight on her hooves. Around her battlehorns and the Lost battled an unfair fight where the unicorns were outnumbered and overwhelmed. Sounds seemed distant and cries echoed around her, but inside her head they screamed in panic and despair.

"What are you doing?" Discord was shocked and scared at something. "Stop! You are not supposed to do this!"

Cadance growled, filled with anger at him, next to her. He looked directly at her, terrified.

Star Swirl fought an insane unicorn that tried to stab him with his bare horn. Tired, the old master swung to the side and cut at the Lost unicorn and it dropped to the side. Another flung itself at him and impaled itself on his sword. Star Swirl screamed and backed away, but his sword was gone from his weakened magical grasp.

An insane pegasus fell on top of him, laughing and screaming, eyes wide and sickly yellow, grabbing at Star Swirl and the Archmage couldn't free himself, screaming and trying to hold on to his hooves. His hat fell from his head.

Cadance never saw where she came from, but Cinnamon collided with the pegasus with the force of a speeding train and send it flying past the battlements. She spun her sword and cut two of them trying to reach for her.

"Stand up Star Swirl!" Cinnamon cried, spinning to cut at a mad griffon that flew claws first at Star Swirl.

Something pulled Cadance down, as though she had suddenly become too heavy for herself to hold. It just hurt and made her whine again. She couldn't even hear herself thinking.

"Curses." Star Swirl grunted and grabbed his sword again. Each swiped at another Lost that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Cadance cried and tried to warn them, but her voice never reached them. One of the earth ponies in armor and with the javelins, consumed with Discord's madness threw his weapon at the pair. The point went straight above the gorget of Cinnamon's armor and pierced her flesh. She reared and fell on her side and Star Swirl screamed her name. She touched him and smiled softly, but life stole from her eyes and he cried at her again.

_Help us._

Something pulled at Cadance a fourth time. Like someone had tied weights to her wings, neck and legs, and they pulled her down with an infinite weight. She was sure something had ripped her apart and around her the air sounded as a ferocious river, like falling down a waterfall. But its roaring sound was drowned by thousands upon thousands of desperate cries for help. She didn't know where she fell from, she was standing on the tone, but she somehow fell and collided with the floor.

Suddenly Cadance had her body again. She could feel the stone of the top of the wall. The air was cold, and air smelled of sickness and blood. Her legs fought gravity when she tried to stand but was to weak. She opened her eyes and saw blurrily, but Star Swirl gawked at her. The other ponies around stared at her and backed away slowly. Even Discord's mad ponies stared with shock and backed away from her.

She saw Discord floating in the air with the same shocked disbelief. "This was not… It was not supposed to happen!"

Then he frowned. "Fine. I'll just have to send you back to the Pool of Souls too."

"Stop! You are hurting them!" Someone cried and Discord turned. Something attacked him and he defended himself. Cadance didn't see what exactly happened with her eyes still focusing, but she saw blood and a white body fell from his grasp. Six colored gems fell from his hands and plinked to the ground bellow, all the way down from the top of the wall, next to a lifeless white body.

Rage burned in every vein of her body and her eyes stung. Her teeth pressed and her body tensed violently. Everything was so beautiful and so perfect, but he destroyed it. She screamed all her anger and launched herself at him. Her magic would've torn him to pieces, but her horn failed her. She attacked him with hooves and teeth instead.

But he held her. "Soon it will all be over. You don't have to remember any this. I'm sorry too. It was not how I planned."

A sharp pain stung her chest and she cried. Her strength failed and she fell again, but this time the wind rushed past her ears as darkness embraced her.

Cadance woke suddenly with a scream and sitting on her improvised bed in the dark of Twilight's airship's private cabin. Everypony around her screamed at the scare and she desperately touched her chest while the lights came on.

Shining Armor hugged her and tried to calm her down while Twilight tumbled over Rainbow Dash and Applejack trying to reach her. "Cadance! It's alright! You're safe! Cadance!"

Miss Calcite held the crying Flurry Heart and tried to calm her down while still staring full of worry at Cadance. Worried pegasi crewponies appeared at the door with sabers and pistols.

"Princess Cadance! For goodness sake! Are you hurt?" Rarity stood next to Twilight, who also hugged her. She finally started to reorient herself.

"Cadance, love." Shining looked at her. "Are you alright? Tell us. Do you need anything?"

She closed her eyes and tried to get her breathing under control. She still heard the rushing sound of the wind around her and held her head with her hooves, but the sound vanished slowly.

"Cadie. What happened?" Shining Armor looked like he was ready to freak out when he let go and stared at her. "Are you hurt?"

She dropped to the bed again and covered her eyes with a whine. "I just found out there is a magical palace inside my head with doors with our cutie marks, Luna has magical images that show her how my mind is working, I witnessed thousands of years of pony history, found out ponies worshiped me and it ended with Star Swirl defending a fortress against Discord's zomponies with the biggest ponies I have ever seen, and it ended with Discord killing me!"

"I need a fucking drink and I am going to murder somepony if I don't get it!"


	19. Goddess

Discord woke with an echoing laughter in his head. It was strange as Luna was usually on point to rid him of that particular nightmare. Maybe something happened and she was too busy. He had slept in one of the guest rooms of the Jarl's mansion and it was a nice rustic place with stone walls and heavy glasses and curtains on the windows. He couldn't say that he appreciated the fur beds, but he had to admit they had their charm, as did the fireplace.

Apparently, the griffons didn't have the means or chose not to use the temperature regulation spells the ponies used. It made for a much less comfortable bedroom, but he supposed it fit with them and their gruffer selves and the novelty could hold for a while.

He couldn't say he didn't like it. The stone floors, the sturdy looking buildings with that ancient feel, but he missed the pony masonry. Too many memories, he supposed.

He sat on his bed with his head bent at an angle and righted it with a crack.

"You know, I happen to be very proficient in all sorts of massages for that." A female voice said next to him and he looked to see the steel-blue and silver griffoness his hosts had called Gwineth laying on her side right next to him, like a big cat staring at him.

No. He had not drunk that much last night.

"What are you doing here?"

She grinned all prankish at him, making gestures with her paws. "Well, I said that griffonesses were better than mares, so we made a bet and then…"

"At least you have a sense of humor." He groaned. "What are you really doing here?"

"The Lion said he was going out to hunt for the archlich and asked me to invite you. But you were sleeping, and I just stayed here staring creepily at you."

"Is that something that young ones do nowadays?"

She grinned even more self-congratulatory. "Only when we like you."

He rubbed a hand on his head against a small headache when the laughter returned to annoy him. "I'll meet you guys outside, just as soon as I get rid of this headache."

She, however, stared at the window with none of her previous grinning. "Did you hear that?"

He paid attention. It wasn't in his head. "Great…"

First, he tried teleporting. When that failed, he grunted again and followed her outside. The air was chilly and wet, not to mention unpleasant and indeed he was hearing laughter and it was the not good kind he had come to know, but it was the kind he had caused so long ago and that seemed to have returned to haunt him in his dream and then in his waking time.

They went straight to the gatehouse where what seemed like the entire guard complement of the city had gathered next to the old Jarl and to Lord Ironfeathers. They made way and the two of them reached the top of the gatehouse with the griffon girl throwing herself at the battlements while Discord placed himself next to it, close to Gilad.

The sun was barely above the horizon and its beams caused a phantasmagoric light and shadows show against the deep fog to the sound of that unnerving laughter.

"That is no lich." The Lion said in his deep voice, straining his eyes against the fog and the sunrays that penetrated it. "I have no notion what that thing is."

Discord couldn't believe his senses. It had to be some sort of sick joke! A ghost from the past that he had left behind that had come back to haunt him. It indeed wasn't a lich or any matter of traditional undead monster, but one he had created himself with the intention of upending creation and starting it all over.

He felt her damaged and sick magic much sooner than he actually saw her when the fog started to clear away like the curtains at a theater dedicated to shaming him. Her diseased magic literally reversed the spells that enchanted her armor and the leaf-shaped plates seemed discolored, brittle and ready to fall apart on its own. Her shield and sword were as gone as the color of her coat and mane, and she moved in the most bizarre way, staggering her way towards the gate, and laughing like an insane yellow-eyed hyena. It was simply impossible to identify what her original colors were and somehow that seemed to make the whole thing even worse.

"What the fuck is that thing?!" Gwineth cried next to them. The less incautious could call it a frost zompony, but it was clearly not undead. It merely had the appearance of sickness, not of death and rot.

"There are many frost undead griffons and ponies in the area because of the ancient battlefields and the Windigo magic…" The Jarl said carefully. "But this thing doesn't look like an undead creature. No wonder it moved around so much."

"She is a disharmonized pony from centuries upon centuries ago." Discord explained. But not simply a normal pony. A loyal soldier his magic had turned into a monster to tear away at the sanity of those survivors that did everything to protect their future from his insanity. "She is a battlehorn. A corrupted battlehorn."

Her kind had fought battles against him in close proximity to the Frozen North in the early days of the end of the world and she was likely from one of the first they had sent. The only explanation he could come up with was that her twisted magic somehow kept her alive and then his presence drew her to that place. Just the amount of time this creature survived was unsettling.

He could undo the damage he caused with a snap of his fingers, but they seemed glued to the cold stone. In another time it would be like a switch to flick and the creature would collapse, free of its mortal coil and whatever damaged magic it retained would follow its natural course and return to its original purity.

It wasn't so simple in the present. He should have the obligation to free her, since he was the cause of her affliction. But it wasn't so easy anymore. It would be a mercy, and he didn't entirely understand the feeling that prevented him from doing it, but he felt like a coward.

The Lion stared discreetly at him, but he still didn't find the courage to rid that pony of what he had done. Then the Lion jumped off the wall, softened his fall with his wings and started walking towards the battlehorn. Her laughter turned to a high-pitched wailing cackle amalgamated with a dry coughing that was simply unnerving.

"Raise, Snow Mountains. Ancient home of the Children of the Harpy." He said calmly, but he also projected his voice. What drew Discord's attention though was that the surrounding magic changed around him. "A foreign invader taints the land with corrupted magic. Heed my blood that its lame magic is undone."

He had never met Emperor Grigor or any of his descendants and this was completely new to him, but magic swirled around him and flowed into him rather flowing out from the inside like when ponies cast spells, but the end result was the same: it coalesced into a magical effect when a threshold was overcome, and that effect was a magical disruption aura that surrounded him.

The battlehorn silenced and stared with what could only have been a remnant of confusion she could summon from whatever part of her mind still functioned properly enough, and then her horn lit up with magic and conjured a lightning bolt, which was proper counterspell magic, but her own magic didn't function correctly enough for her to overwhelm his protection . A lightning did strike from her horn with a clap and it made the air smell of thunder.

In her prime a proper spell would've summoned lightning from the sky and would've turned the black dirty ground to glass and made him into a barbecue, but his spell protected him from any damage. Then the battlehorn summoned a magical version of her typical curved sword and charged with more wheezing laughter.

It wasn't particularly smart, since he was protected by an anti-spell aura, and the idea that she somehow managed to recognize his protection and cast a proper spell, but at the same time was completely ineffective and then changed to the wrong tactic just made him think of the damage he and time had done to her mind. His fingers squeezed against the cold stone as though they had a life of their own.

He kept watching as the battlehorn charged towards the griffon, who sat and picked his weapon from his back: a long-shafted battle axe. Not particularly fancy, but it had a heavy head and its black metal was adorned with silver inlay of what seemed like runes. Silver being one of the magical conducting metals, it made sense. It soaked in the magic surrounding it and its inlay shone in white light.

"Primal ice from the mountains strike down this monster!" He didn't have much time, but he seemed to have said enough. Icy claws rose from the ground, like an eagle closing its talons on prey and punctured the brittle armor just before the battlehorn was at striking range. Almost at the same time Gilad stood on his hindlegs and swung his axe upwards.

Discord turned his head, but there were no more cries of pain or insane laughter. The griffons cheered around him and applauded.

"Well, the 'archlich' is dealt with." Gwineth said while Discord saw Gilad returning.

"Area's monsters should be quieter now." The Jarl nodded and hummed, then turned to one of his city's guards. "Open the gate. Don't make the Lion fly up the battlements."

They followed the guard, still to the sound of cheering griffons and they met Gilad. "We should leave for Griffindell. Get everything ready for travel, Gwineth."

She simply nodded and turned to go towards the Horn. Meanwhile the Jarl stayed with them. "Will you at least allow the populace to see you off?"

"A small affair. It is important that I escort the Lord of Chaos to Griffinsky without much delay."

"Fair enough. If you excuse me, then." He left Discord alone with Gilad and they said nothing for a while.

"Thank you."

Cadance did get her drink. At first Applejack offered her some apple cider she had brought, but the way the princess stared at her convinced that offering it might not have been a good idea. Instead one of Twilight's crewponies offered Cadance a shot of marula liquor from the Zebra lands. She gratefully accepted the bottle.

Fortunately, it wasn't too early when she woke up and she'd been able to take a second to appreciate the sunrise. Celestia had just raised it and she remembered to appreciate that warm feeling that ponies took for granted and that made them forget the insanely powerful magic that thing radiated. Yes, she was pissed, but she still appreciated it.

She sat at a cute round table the crewponies brought from the underdeck, wearing sunglasses and a helpful pegasus crewpony massaged her shoulders. Ah… Relaxation for once. Then she took another shot of that fruity, caramel-ish drink and inhaled calmly with a smile.

In front of her Flurry Heart sat on the table and stared intensely at her.

"You are judging me, aren't you?" She asked the baby staring at her through the sunglasses.

"u bether be dam shuwe i am!" Flurry shot back at her.

"Well, stop that! You can live with a few meals of formula and mashed apples." She served herself another shot from the bottle and held it in her magic. "Mommy's been through some really rough times."

"oh, boowoo! Mommy ish been thwough some weawwy wough times…" Her baby mocked her waving her head from one side to the other and then started counting by clopping her little hoof on the table. "u took me to fwom wome, took me to scawy changewing nest, ponynapped me to go on Twiwight's aiwship, went away fow a wong time, jumped off the aiwship with auntie Twiwight, and now you scawed me with scawy scweaming!"

"Hey! You said you were fine in Chrysalis' nursery."

"Yow awe my mothew! Yow have to take cawe of me! Not othew way awound!"

"I do! Would you rather I left you home with Miss Calcite to drink that formula you hate every day?"

"I wanna be with gwanny Cewestia! She gives the bestest toys evew!"

"Well, Princess Celestia isn't your granny. She's your auntie, because she adopted me as her niece instead of her daughter. Do you think that made me happy? And, you know what else? She's lied to mommy! She hid a lot of important things about mommy. You should be angry with her, not with me. With her and with Princess Luna! They are both big evil baddies that don't want mommy to be too important! Do you really think they'll be any better to you?"

Twilight and Shining Armor stared from a safe distance next to their friends. From the door to the private room while the baby raised her little hooves and made some baby noises they didn't understand.

"Oh, do you now?" Cadance spoke back to her. "You bet she will! She'll stick you to some cold end of the world city and the newspapers will say that 'conveniently, a city just materialized out of nowhere to get the Princess' niece a public paying job'. Yeah… Right. Ponies used to give me gifts so that I would grant them Love. And here is more! I bet my hoof Princess Celestia has no idea how to take proper care of a baby! Pfff… Who cares she can raise the sun and rule all of Equestria! I bet she's never changed a diaper in her life! But, oh! I bet that if you were Twilight, you would've been given the whooooole world to rule! But do you know what I can do? Mommy can give you all the stallions and mares you will ever want when you are old enough to understand why mommy and daddy make noises at night. Nopony else can do that for you!"

"This is scaring me!" Shining Armor stared at the two having their conversation.

His sister grimaced and looked at Starlight Glimmer. "Please say this is normal…"

"It looks like some sort of bizarre coping mechanism." She said with a hoof on her chin and narrow eyes.

"She's plumb crazy, is what this looks like." Applejack interjected.

"You should talk to her, Twilight." Rarity said from behind. "She seems to have discovered some important things in that dream of hers that seem to be bothering her."

"I think Cadance needs some distance, Rarity. She's really not very friendly right now."

"She is talking to a baby! About forcing ponies to be in love with her." Applejack reminded them. "Princess Cadance doesn't need some distance. She needs a straight jacket."

"Actually, I'm a little scared too!"

"Take Shining Armor! He's married to her." Rarity retorted anxiously. "We have to do something! This doesn't look healthy at all!"

By then Cadance and the baby hugged each other over the table and had started crying. Rarity winced and gestured for the two to do something.

"Alright! Fine! I'll go talk to her." He finally started walking and Twilight followed closely up to the table.

He cleared his throat, looking at the pair hugging and crying in Twilight's airship, in the middle of this whole mess they found themselves in. For a second, he wondered where it all had gone wrong. But he was stuck loving his career, his sister, his wife and daughter, all of which seemed to be somewhat crazy in that exact moment.

"So, uh…. You girls understanding each other?" He grinned as friendly as he could, given the situation.

Cadance sniffed and raised her head. "Yes. Flurry Heart is right. I need to mare up and talk to you guys about the dream. It wasn't so bad."

"I'm glad she made you see the light." Twilight laughed awkwardly. "You sure you don't need to sleep for a bit? Or eat anything?"

The other sighed. "No. It's important stuff. You better get something to write and gather the others."

Meanwhile Flurry Heart sucked on her little hoof.

Celestia sat at her throne, but not the one in the Hall of Friendship. That place was closed for the day, fortunately, as the griffon senators had more important things to do rather than bore her and the rest of Equestria with another speech about how great or evil was the Lion.

That morning she occupied her throne in her wing of Canterlot Palace. A little more modest, even if it sat at the top of a few steps, it was meant for her to receive her subjects and help them deal with their day to day problems, and thus make them feel welcomed, not project her power, something, something she didn't care about. Her throne room had the nice stained glass mosaics and it was little more than a long room with her throne in the end with the white and red curtains hiding the wall behind.

To her left, by the steps was Miss Raven Inkwell with her book, taking notes of the meeting and in front of her was Madam Justiciar Golden Rule talking to her nephew Blueblood who sat in front of her throne and before the Justiciar.

"My goodness auntie." He scratched at his mane in a most unbecoming way for him that indicated he really was nervous. "I simply don't know what to say!"

"To think that Lord Stalwart Star would be implicated with something of that sort is appalling! I feel somewhat morally…" He stopped for a second and coughed. "But not legally… Responsible for this whole situation! To think that your highness was forced into such an awful situation and saw yourself forced to intervene! I feel awful!"

"It is important to remember that your name wasn't mentioned in the letters or in Lord Star's interrogation. Much less by the ponies involved in the attempt to whisk him away." Golden Rule said.

"I merely called you here because I thought that I should inform you personally." Celestia added. "Your administration will be notified by the Royal Court and you will need to replace some of your officials, at least temporarily, as they cannot be involved in the investigation and actively occupy their positions."

"Absolutely. There is no place for the sort of thing that Lord Star was involved within our midst!" He raised his muzzle in the most aggrieved way imaginable. "Rest assured that I will personally lead an internal investigation on these affairs. This sort of sedition should be unthinkable in our fair world, much less in the royal city of Canterlot!"

"Then, if we are understood, that would be all, nephew." Celestia told him and he responded with a deep but courteous bow, then left. Golden Rule waited for a few seconds after he had left before she talked to the princess.

"Huh… We did call him to see how he would react…" Golden Rule looked over her own notes. "Did you think he seemed a little too solicitous?"

Celestia shook her head slowly. "It's his flamboyant way of doing everything. I didn't think that he would be involved. It would be too obvious of a scapegoat, and it is glaring that the presence of the griffon assassin is a sign that the money went to fund the Lion's new airships and weapons. Not somewhere within Canterlot County Administration."

"We are dealing with someone that really knows what they are doing, aren't we?" Golden looked up at her. "Not just some moronic overly rich plothole that wants to be richer."

"We've been watching all the movement of resources along the northern regions of Griffonia so closely, but we haven't seen anything. I imagine that if the Lion is to blame, he has a very resourceful agent infiltrated in the Griffonian administration…" Celestia tapped her chin with a hoof. "Very discreetly start an investigation on the movement of resources within Griffonia. Use your talent for unearthing the unusual and keep to your most trusted team. Anything going into Snow Mountains is likely to be going undercover through conventional means, but it is also possible that clandestine lines could take resources from Mount Aris or Saddle Arabia."

The unicorn covered her eyes with a leg and grunted. "Ugh. This is going to be a pain!"

Celestia smiled. "Still, I trust your ability, Golden Rule."

"This is strange, though. By the way that…" She took a quick look at her notes. "Schlick talked, I was sure there be would ponies that wanted you ousted and that is why they would help the Lion. Number one candidate with you and Luna gone would be the Archduke. Or Princess Cadance."

"We're dealing with someone very resourceful and crafty, Golden Rule." Celestia agreed. "It's likely that they wouldn't involve him until all the risk was removed and taking the throne would be too easy and tempting for him to resist. And then control him like a puppet."

The Justiciar rose an eyebrow. "Are you aware that this could be Cadance's doing? Or even Twilight's or Luna's doing? Heck. It could be the Prince-Consort."

"I am aware." Celestia nodded again. "But I doubt it."

Golden Rule simply hummed to herself, and sensing the meeting with the justiciar was over, Miss Inkwell looked up the next meeting in her records, but Golden Rule wasn't done yet.

"Princess, may I ask you something?"

"Absolutely."

"I went to the Changeling Rock and spoke to the Queen's Librarian… Princesses Twilight and Cadance seem to have found something peculiar about our astronomical records. The changeling told me that they were investigating irregularities with our historical records. Something seemed to have distressed Princess Twilight and that is why she went to have a conversation with Queen Chrysalis. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to reach her, but in Ponyville the militiaponies told me that the princesses had something of a disagreement with you..." She rose one of her pink eyebrows. "Is there something you would like to tell me? Because even if they are plotting against you… That doesn't mean that they aren't right in something."

"Yes. I do want to tell you something." She glared from her throne. "Please don't distract yourself from your investigation."

"Hmmmmm…." Golden Rule thought that Celestia always looked too cute when she glowered like that, but she frowned and stared at the princess with marked intensity.

"Well then, might there be anything you wish to tell me, Madam Justiciar?"

Raven's jaw dropped a little while looked at one and another as though they were two duelists in one of those Appleloosan theather pieces.

"Hmmmmm…. Nope!" She grinned extra happy. "I'm good! I'll see you later, Princess!"

She simply turned and pranced out the door, humming a little song.

"You know, you are supposed to wait for me to dismiss you." The princess pouted. "Who would be next, Miss Inkwell?"

"Princess Luna wants to see you."

"Luna?" That surprised her. "She should be in the Bordello taking care of Chrysalis. And she's not supposed to queue to see me! Goodness, please send her in, Solar!"

The guard by the door called to Luna and she came inside. Celestia frowned. "Luna, you're not supposed to wait in line to talk to me!"

"I know! I was trying to figure out the best way to tell you this… So, I took the extra time, but I still don't know how to make this sound good. Therefore, I am simply going to say it!" She inhaled deeply. "Cadance found a way into the Palace of the Self and started freaking out so I had to unlock some of her memories, or her brain would turn to jelly!"

"Oh, no! What memories?! Is Cadance well?! Are you hurt?"

Raven recoiled a bit with a raised hoof, surprised. She expected the princess to be angry, given how apprehensive Luna seemed to be, but instead she looked worried sick. On one hoof it was nice that she had that level of trust on her, not to asking her to leave. Not that Raven understood it at all… But seeing the princesses acting like that was never a good thing.

"I don't know for sure! Luna rubbed the bridge of her muzzle with a hoof. "I didn't have a chance of seeing what damage it has caused yet! I need her to go to sleep, but I think she is reasonably healthy because I left Tantabus and she hasn't told me of any problems yet!"

"I'm terribly sorry, sister!" Luna went on. "I did everything I could, but Cadance was relentless and I was scared. I was worried she'd hurt herself in the process and I wouldn't be able to help. Nothing like that has ever happened before!"

"Calm down, Luna. It's not your fault. "Celestia sighed and put a hoof on her forehead. "I can't believe this! Now, of all times! How did it happen?"

"I caught her in a nightmare and dealt with it, but it kept repeating and that was when I saw it! I cleared everything away, but she was fixated on that memory that was causing her a lot of grief, and then I tried finding the problem, but it turned out that she's been seeing those things about Emperor Grigor with Twilight and that messed the whole thing up because a of conversation about the Harpy made her recall memories from that time! You know! Before Discord!"

"The Harpy?!" Celestia almost screamed. "No! This is awful! Who even told her about the Harpy?"

"Yes… It's… It's a mess. You better talk to Sunburst and Twilight's librarian that are waiting to see you. You'll understand… They are involved."

"Luna, I destroyed the Harpy. I destroyed everything there was about her. It is simply not possible that she is even known anymore."

"Well, you'll be surprised. And probably angry." Luna said plainly. "Just talk to them."

"We'll deal with this. Cadance is more important." Celestia sighed again, eyes turned downward and with her ears flopped on the sides of her head. "So, it's began. We feared that would happen. It's not that bad. We can deal with that too. It is just a shame it had to happen in this way, before we were better prepared. What about Chrysalis?"

"I had to leave her to come here. But she knows the plan… She'll be waiting for us in the Break of Dawn come the right time. I told her where she'll be, and she should find it."

"Good. I want to finish this as soon as we can so we can leave. Now would be an excellent time to get Twilight and Cadance under control. With some luck we can intercept the griffon airship and then deal with them without they ever coming in contact."

"So, I guess I'll wait for you and we can go together to Chrysalis or to the Break of Dawn? I mean, she could try something naughty. We do know that she was originally intending to help Discord help Twilight and Cadance reach Manehattan."

"Sounds good!" Celestia smiled and then tapped on the side seat of the throne with a hoof and Luna took her place there.

"Very well…" Raven adjusted her glasses. "Next on the list would be Corporal Spear with Mister Sunburst and Misses Gerdie and Goodread, along with evidence confiscated in Haybale.

"Yes. Please let them in." Celestia told the guard by the door and he gestured for them to enter the room.

She was glad none of them seemed to have caused problems since they weren't wearing any sort of restrictive measures or were accompanied by additional guards. Only the one guard, Long Spear that brought a cart with a stone tablet and a letter encased in protective crystal, as Chocolate's letter had mentioned.

Why in Tartarus did parents give names such as Long Spear to a newborn male foal was beyond her. Maybe her mind has been a little dirtier since she and Luna started dating their consort… She shook the thoughts out of her head when they stopped by the steps.

"Princess, these are Mister Sunburst, Miss Goodread and Miss Gerdie." Spear said. "They were with princesses Twilight Sparkle and Cadance when we stormed their meeting place in Haybale. Also, as planned, Prince Chocolate Velvet was taken prisoner by the griffons."

The white and blue earth pony in armor pointed at the cart. "They had these artifacts with them. Miss Gerdie insisted they were invaluable so we were as careful as we could afford with them. They do seem to be quite old."

"Wait!" Sunburst blurted out. "The Prince was captured by griffons?"

"Yes." Celestia said coldly. "So that they wouldn't take you or the princesses. You didn't know, but Twilight's airship was being tracked by a griffon warship that teleported into Baltimare."

Given the tone of her response, he decided to shut his mouth while she stepped down from her throne and walked to the cart to pick up the letter in her telekinetic magic, then proceeded to reading it. Luna bent a little to the side to see it too, but she was too far.

"Does it jog your memory, Princess?" Gerdie gave her the most complacent of grins she's ever seen in a griffon's beak. If she didn't strike the princess as one of the good griffons she might have thought that Miss Gerdie would be the kind for which she harbored… Intense disappointment.

"This is a forgery." She said plainly, not taking her eyes off the letter yet.

"My feathers it is." The grin vanished from the small griffon's face and Sunburst and Goodread started worrying. Luna just hid her muzzle and tried not to laugh. "The information on the letter Princess Cadance found corroborates this. It confirms that a griffon army invaded Equestria. Something the princesses are adamant you hid from our historical records. That Equestria was under the rulership of the Brightmane family, associated with the Bluebloods, both families from that time, and you and your sister were not made rulers when you arrived… From Tartarus knows where. And that the Sun was doing weird things. It speaks of Emperor Grigor and of an entity called the Harpy. All of that never mentioned in griffon History or equestrian History."

She sat and crossed her eagle forelegs. "Why don't you start from there, Princess? Tell us where you are from and then move on to what you are hiding."

Luna simply stared while Celestia still looked at the letter. She knew that her elder sister was probably reminiscing on something painful, but she had to suppress a laugh at the old little griffon lady's nerve at talking like that to Celestia. Not that Celestia might be angry or do something, Luna knew better, but most creatures in the world would never talk to her like that.

"Excuse-me, Miss Gerdie. I wasn't aware that I was being interrogated by the highest authority there is in our world. Where are my manners?" The griffoness blinked a few times when she remembered who she was talking to. Celestia though was fed up with that whole mess. She looked up to the ceiling and sighed, letting the letter go on the cart. It was all so tiresome. And Raven knew that when Princess Celestia looked tired things were bad. Luna was a bit surprised, though, and raised an eyebrow at the scene.

"The only problem we face today, Miss Gerdie is also an ancient one. It is that the world is full of creatures that are incapable of being satisfied with what they have. Instead of living happy lives in a perfect world that caters to their every need, they must seek more than they need and in such they make it impossible for others to do just that." She looked back at the griffon and the two ponies next to the guard. "You could live in a perfect world where you would have a job that fulfilled you and then access to nourishment, health and entertainment, but some creatures have always wanted more. They didn't trust the others, so they must have enough to sustain then when the inevitable betrayal would come. They didn't trust the others to do their part, so they wanted those that did to do more so that they wouldn't be left without theirs."

"I have lived for millennia and I still don't understand why we are like that. Maybe the problem is free will. Or that we are all inherently cowards. Or both. Or even further, it is possible that it was intended to be this way. I did everything in my power to change that, but I failed. I meant it to be a perfect world, but alas, my intentions didn't matter to the greater plan."

"What are you talking about, Princess?" Sunburst paid attention, even if the princess seemed to be rambling. She moved on, however.

"It was selfishness that brought the Windigos to our world. It grew into discontentment and distrust that broke the trust among the Three Tribes and that made them stop working in harmony. Then the griffons didn't trust the ponies anymore because they had brought the everlasting winter to their lands. Then the yak didn't trust this 'weird pony magic'. The dragons stopped trusting the ponies and so did the Kirin and the hippogriff. And so on until Discord came too. We don't seem to ever learn that lesson."

"But worse, nopony… Nobody wanted to go back to the way things were. Because that trust was irreparably broken. And that gave space for the likes of Emperor Grigor, who insisted that the griffons ought to retain their own kingdom and that was fine, but he also believed that it was their mandate to subjugate all the races of the world, and as such, they thought that they didn't need to heed the laws of other nations. Do you know why they thought like that?"

Gerdie shook her head slowly.

"Because the Harpy told him. The more even-headed griffons were horrified with the ideas that seemed to grow out of Grigor's relationship with the Harpy." She pointed at the stone tablet and her voice rose just a tiny bit. "I thought that I ordered the entire temple destroyed, but it seems that some griffon wanted to have more than he needed! I hope they got a good money from this piece, or at least that they were happy with themselves."

Sunburst and Goodread kept their mouths shut because the Princess seemed to be upset, and that was an understatement. But Luna seemed worried and Gerdie got a little more than angry.

"How can you say this?! They loved the Harpy. Didn't you think that the griffons would want to have their own version of what the ponies have in you? Even if she was mean and gave the Emperor bad ideas. What if this was a memento? Something to remember her by? It is not possible that all of them agreed with these ideas but doesn't mean that they didn't like her either. At least I can say that she let the griffons rule themselves!"

Luna grimaced at her seat and frantically gestured at Miss Gerdie to shut her beak. Fortunately, the Celestia's near infinite patience was still going strong.

"You are very naïve, Miss gerdie. You were born in a world that permitted that you would believe such things about a creature such as Grigor. And I suppose you could compare me with the Harpy… Even if for reasons you don't know. But I have never commanded my ponies to hunt and take away the freedom of other creatures, treat them like animals while laughing and saying that their blood was too sweet." Gerdie gasped and Celestia went on. "Or did you think that your Grigor and his friends saw difference between buffalos, deer, caribou or ponies and yaks? They were all hooved beasts to them. Inferior beasts made to be subjugated and torn apart for food. When anyone questioned their behavior, they were called inferior and weak, ostracized from society. Why else did you think that your ancestors wanted to forget everything about him and the Harpy?"

"But." Gerdie restrained herself. "They built a giant temple to her…"

"It was a giant waste of a building made of black stone and iron, with songs engraved on the walls about all the greatness of your race, all around the shrine with the stone table in front of white and black curtains where a priestess of the harpy would carve out the heart of the sacrifice and leave it there for her in a golden plate. Hardly anything worthy of being remembered by a civilized society." She returned to her throne. "But if you must hear it, when I went there and opened the curtains, there was nothing inside. It was an empty room with nothing more than dust. She was nothing more than disgusting ideas and an excuse to accept them. And if I had found something inside, at the time, I wouldn't have hesitated a heartbeat before destroying her."

"King Grover knew that his time was limited, and he made me promise I would never let the griffons fall that far again. And it took me centuries before I managed to rebuild Equestria because of that very same way of thinking. It hurt me and my sister in ways you cannot understand. The same evil, from the same root. Selfishness."

Celestia's voice shifted a little. "I don't claim to be perfect, Miss Gerdie, but I know what is best for your kind and it lies as far away from the Harpy as possible. I have nightmares enough thinking that the Lion is dabbling into that already, perhaps not understanding all that she represented and I have, more than once, woke up, shaking in sweat at the thought that we might have another war where griffons turned to violent and insensitive monsters that would delight in reaping the lives of those who were once their friends to cut them in pieces and serve them in their feasts."

"And that is all you need to know about the Harpy and Grigor. Because the Harpy does not exist and Grigor has been dead for millennia." Celestia scowled a little. "Now, I want you to tell me why is it that the Lion has sent you to draw Twilight and Cadance to Haybale and gave you these things to show them. Is it because he seeks legitimacy to his rule in the myth of the Harpy? How much does he know of the Harpy? What exactly does he intend with Twilight and Cadance?"

"Princess, he didn't send me." She retreated a step, confused at the accusation.

Sunburst raised a concerned hoof. "We found Miss Gerdie reading about King Sombra in the Crystal Empire. The palace's library."

Celestia frowned. "It is too much coincidence that a griffon airship under his son's command hijacked a teleporter in Baltimare and then set course to Haybale instead of chasing an airship tasked with apprehending the princesses that he wants to reach. Why did you go to the Crystal Empire at the precise time to find Twilight's friends that knew she looked for information about Emperor Grigor, something you shouldn't even know about to begin with?"

"I know about Emperor Grigor because my family is from Snow Mountains… I was going to be a Loremaster! But we moved out when my father got a job at Thunderpeak, as curator of the Grand Museum of Griffon History. He suggested to me that I went to the Crystal Empire. He knew I was looking for information regarding the Emperor and mentioned the letter the princesses found."

"I feel like we should pay him a visit, sister." Luna Said seriously. "I don't think that he could have heard about it by licit means in such short time. Chrysalis told nopony and after this I am more than inclined to believe that the letter that Cadance found came from him."

"Princess. Please. My father is just an old curator for the museum!" Gerdie was on the verge of tears with the idea that she may have put her father in danger. "He is very old!"

"Miss Gerdie, I guarantee that we will not harm your father in any way." Celestia spoke softly again. "But we must question him. Kindly cooperate with the Royal Guard, along with your companions and do not try to leave Canterlot. Corporal Spear will accommodate you on a hotel."

"Yes, princess. Absolutely." She joined her paws together and nodded with the two ponies.

Then Celestia turned to Luna. "Did you ever manage to look into Chrysalis's children?"

"The Praetorians?" Luna's ears perked up. "Well, no. They're too scared of me yet."

"I see. Since you are here, please go to the museum at Thunderpeak and talk to the curator. See if our suspicions are founded. I should go to the Bordello since I don't want to leave Chrysalis unsupervised for too long. I doubt she's given up in getting in our way as Discord's asked her, and as much as she can say that she is not interested, I know that is not true and she will try to gain any advantages she can with this situation. It is also about time I met 'her children'."

"Don't worry Miss Gerdie! I'll make sure that your father is not hurt in any way!" Luna proclaimed triumphantly and then frowned a little. "While investigating the museum… But the point is that he will not be harmed!"

Celestia giggled. "Get moving Luna. We don't want to lose the opportunity."

Seven big and bored changelings laid about in one of the many and luxurious rooms in the Bordello of Candy. They were on the bed. On the couch. One of them was strewn head down and legs up on the reading chair. One laid on a rustic looking wool rug, like a giant dog on his side and another laid belly up on the desk.

Suddenly the one on the table raised his head. "Oy. I think they forgot about us!"

Noling answered, and noling seemed to care, so he simply let his head hang from the side of the table again. Then he wiggled his legs about. "I know! Let's play a game! I spy, with my little eye…"

He quickly scanned the room and found a pretty ball made with red satin and gold on the mantlepiece. "Something that begins with a B!"

"It's a bloody idiot that needs to shut the hell up!" The big female growled from the bed.

He grumbled and let his head hang again. "Why are you always so mean?"

"Because I have to live with you morons! Mother is probably furious because you fuckwads ruined our defense in the siege!"

"It was all because Luna's thestrals didn't take the fight seriously!" Another complained. "We could've won if they had taken it seriously!"

After that there was some silence again. Until another spoke, the one laying on his side. "My hoof is tingling again."

"Yeah, thanks for the update, mate. Warn us again when it falls off already."

A little bit more of silence until the one upside down on the chair covered her face with her hooves and whined. "She's probably gonna recycle us!"

Then someone fiddled with the lock on the door. "AAH! It's the Reclaimer!"

Myrmirex, the Queen's secretary opened the door and stared inside. "I wish… Bossy, the Queen wants these morons ready for combat. Your weapons are in the armory and your lieutenants are already gathering the others. Cadance's ponies will help. Get everyling assembled in the yard and we will teleport in one hour."

The big female on the bed turned on her belly and saluted with a hoof (while laying on her belly in the bed). "Understood! Right then! Get moving!"

They obeyed without a peep and she followed them out the door.

On the other side of the mirror Chrysalis sat next to Celestia and she realized that she had somehow failed to come up with a flattering way of presenting her 'children' to Celestia so that she wouldn't be too angry and in the end she might as well have not even bothered. The truth is that there was never a way of doing that without it looking bad.

She had told Celestia all that she could about them, how they came to be and all the bad things that she shouldn't have done. It was a bit painful to go through it all again after she had done so with Luna, but she supposed that she owed that to them. At the moment, she looked at Celestia and she simply stared at them through the mirror in silence and it was creeping the hell out of Chrysalis. She felt like a foal whose mother had just found out she had done something terribly dumb and wrong, and her mind was quickly browsing through all the punishments she would inflict upon herself if she was in Celestia's place.

Celestia, meanwhile, had two things in her mind. First, the fact that Cadance had put a room with a two way mirror in her Bordello of Candy that was frequently visited by some of the richest members of nobility of the world and that it was meant to be used by said members of nobility. Willingly. And she had thought that she, wrapping up her tail and wearing a sexy saddle and jewelry was too lascivious. Apparently, that was too normal those days.

Regardless…

"What is this 'Reclaimer', Chrysalis?" Celestia asked turning to her.

"Beats me!" The Queen shook her head. "She's had this fixed idea that I'm going to recycle them for some time now. Whatever that means. And she's come up with this 'Reclaimer' Cerberus knows from where! Luna thinks it's some object she's associated with their cycle of dying and taking over another body that's taken a monstrous proportion inside her head."

"Luna has taught me that this is the sort of thing that happens when ponies have nightmares that go unattended. Maybe she can help with this when we finally have some time."

"Before that you shouldn't take them with us." Celestia added. "But I suppose that if you left them behind that would only distress them further. They also didn't realize that the fight was a mock battle?"

"No, they did. What they didn't realize was that they were supposed to lose." She sighed. "If I tell them the simplest of commands, they turn it into some epic quest for my honor. Most of the time they are quite competent too."

"Have you told them that?" Celestia asked.

"What?"

"That you think that are dedicated and that they are competent at their job."

Chrysalis simply blinked as though Celestia had told her an impossibility and the princess stared blankly at her for a few seconds. "Have you ever told them that you at least appreciate their efforts and that you won't recycle them? Whatever they mean by the word, it won't happen. Have you told them that?"

Chrysalis' eyes shifted to the side. She babbled something incomprehensible. "It is possible that I could, maybe, have been more explicit in that."

Celestia beamed, despite her cynical way. "I can guarantee you that the others are afraid too, even if they don't say it. And if you expressed more openly to them that you love them, that you don't plan on 'recycling' them. That would make them calmer and more confident. More stable. And that would make Luna's job easier."

"It can't be that simple!" Chrysalis's wings flared open and buzzed.

"But it is!" The alicorn grinned again, more playful. "You don't have to believe me! You can try it yourself! In a lot of ways, they are like foals, Chrysalis. And foals respond wonderfully to positive feedback!"

"Can you… Can you help me?" Her ears folded down and her crown flattened a bit. It was one of the cutest things Celestia had ever seen associated with the changeling queen. "I'm not very good in that sort of thing."

"It would be my pleasure!" Celestia put a hoof on her chest and proclaimed all cheerfulness. "But it has to be something genuine and reasonable."

Then she put her hoof on Chrysalis' chest. "That comes from here."

"You're losing me, Celestia."

"I'll tell you what to tell them when it is time." She matched Chrysalis blank expression. "Let's get ready to teleport. Luna will be joining us soon."

Chocolate Velvet felt a strange and rather comical combination of humiliation and anger. They put an inhibitor ring on his horn and then actually tied him with ropes and carried him like he was a box or something. Seriously, the things he did for his princesses. Even the ones that weren't 'his'.

Then he was sure the airship was hiding inside a cloud with a high degree of certainty because they flew through one and soon after they threw him on a hard, metallic floor full of 'metallic sounds' and smells everywhere. To be honest, if he didn't know what he was doing he would be very scared. Instead, he is giddy at the thought of how much these griffons are screwing up. He'd gladly take a few bumps to the head and be dropped a couple of times for that.

Since he was blindfolded, he didn't get to see much of the griffon airship and all he could really gather was that it was big, noisy, radiated weird magic, smelled of wet cat and metal, and finally was full of jerks. The big griffon that was in command walked him somewhere and shoved him inside a cubicle he assumed was a jail cell, by the sound it made when he locked it.

The griffon said nothing, so he simply stood there, waiting. Until he was fed up and pulled out the blindfold to see that he was indeed in a small cell with a mattress for bed and a bucket. On the other side were the bars with a door. A simple lock and beyond it was what seemed to him as a medical room. It had a single bed, cabinets and tables with all sorts of 'medical stuff'. Or a torture room. That wouldn't surprise him. It had no windows, and a single door on each side of the room. All metallic, with exposed girders except for a few panels that likely protected wiring and pipes. So different from the typical pony designs. Or they didn't have the time to finish the whole thing, which was also possible. It had the same kind of magical lights the ponies used, and he didn't like the way the whole structure vibrated. With the weird magical radiation, it made him think that the magical engines didn't quite work right.

In a way, the whole thing made him think of a submarine.

He stood there for hours until another griffon came in on of the doors. "Greetings your highness!"

A light gray and white griffon of slim build and icy blue eyes. Someone locked the door from the outside with a wheel and he stopped before the bars with a superior smile. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Garvie and I am Master Grigory's friend and personal physician. I am here to ensure that you are not too injured if you don't mind."

"Hi, Garvie. I'm Chocolate Velvet and I am here to tell your friend all the ways he fucked up." He replied with a huge smile. "Could you call him, please?"

The griffon laughed a bit. "I'm afraid it won't be possible. Grigory is not available at the moment. But do you need anything?"

"Yes. A ratatouille with extra garlic and a bottle of Solar Sangreal. A white chocolate petit gateau with lemon filling for dessert, please. Ah… Garlic bread for appetizer if it is not too much to ask."

"I'll ask someone to bring you a bunch of hay if they're not too busy." He said plainly. "And you don't look too hurt. So, I guess I'll see you later."

The griffon left and Chocolate Velvet was alone in the room. It was stupid, but he still had fun pissing off the griffon. That done, he decided to relax, but instead of laying in the mattress, he sat in the deep wall and rested his back on it and let his mind relax.

No dreams, no Luna visiting. Nothing but oblivion.

He woke up when the door grated. He put his front hooves on the floor and stared while two griffons entered. A yellow female, curiously wearing some sort of lab coat and a purple and mustard male he recognized as probably being Grigory. After them came the big griffon that commanded those soldiers back in Haybale, and also Garvie.

"Garv, where is my ratatouille? I'm giving you guys a really bad review."

They stopped in front of his cell and the doctor griffon spoke. "He has a bit of a sense of humor. I am just not sure if it is good or bad."

"Greetings Prince Chocolate Velvet. My friend disappointed me by bringing you instead of the princesses I asked him to bring." Grigory said. "Kindly explain that to me."

"Nice meeting you Grigory." Chocolate told him as casual as was possible. "Yeah. Sorry to disappoint you, but Princess Celestia would really appreciate it if you didn't bother Princesses Twilight Sparkle and Cadance."

"I wasn't aware that the princesses owed such deference to Celestia as to the point that they could not talk to me without her permission."

"Well, you kind of worried the Princess when you hijacked a teleporter facility and teleported a warship through it…" He said casually. "I mean, does your dad know you took his airship out?"

"Let me test the magic disruptor on him, Grigory." His yellow and white girl friend snarled, but he rose his paw and silenced her.

"My intention was inviting the Princesses to tour an important archaeological site that might be relevant to their research. But you have provided me with a better opportunity: I am willing to wager that Princess Twilight Sparkle wouldn't hesitate before trading herself in for my present prisoner. This way it should be easier to ensure she reaches her intended destination."

"Twilight isn't stupid."

"No! She is noble and selfless. And that is precisely why she should agree to the exchange." The griffon explained calmly. "I am, of course, not going to bore you with the details of the reasons, but I can assure you that the Princess will not be harmed."

"I'm gonna be a nice guy and tell you that you're digging your own grave. I don't care how much you think that things are going your way, there is going to be a lot of rain in your parade if you don't wise up. And most important, this is going to splash on your father and on his future crown."

"Did Celestia send you here just to tell me that?" The young griffon wasn't amused.

"No." Chocolate answered earnestly. "She sent me here to protect Twilight and Cadance from your dumbass mucking up the scene for everyone. That piece of advice was on me."

"With all due respect, your highness. I don't remember asking your advice. Soon we will be in position to intercept Twilight's airship and I trust in my friends and in my soldiers. After we have succeeded, you will likely be in jail with your princesses, if not worse, when the Hall of Friendship hears of all she's done. We should see you again when I have the princess."

He turned with his friends and left. Chocolate was bored. At least he tried saving this griffon the shame. What an idiot.

Gabriel was an old griffon by most standards and it showed in his whitening gray head and darker coat, but his life of spartan restraint has earned him a healthy body and mind in his old years while most of his contemporary were feeble-minded and lame bodied. The way he saw it there wouldn't be much his servitude would be good for if he was incapable of serving. And he did serve for a good long time watching over what remained of their history. The last in a long line of servants dedicated from keeping their past alive against the Matriarch.

He had hoped he could pass on the mantle to his daughter, and he had already began preparing her, but it seemed he had suddenly run out of time. He was prepared for such an event, but he had hoped for an actual ceremony with his brothers and sisters under Her eyes.

Well, life was hardly perfect.

From his office's window in the second floor he could see the Princess of the Night entering the museum grounds with his two assistants, the young Mister Gund and Miss Geanna chasing her and whining at her like two infants instead of actually doing something effective. Incompetent morons. If only they had warned him instead of pleading with her, they could have bought him some usable time.

She walked the gray stone floor like she owned the place, with her wings in display, trailed by two of her guards while two stayed at the outer gate.

"We are closed to visitors!" The blue and white Gund complained from her left.

"Princess! This is private property!" Geanna mewled on by her right. "You can't simply walk into it uninvited!"

"Funny thing about that!" Luna said without stopping and sounding all happy. "I used to think that too but turns out that I can! Not to mention that I had never been to a griffon museum!"

Taking on the short steps to the main entrance of the building, she disappeared under the balcony and Gabriel turned to his large desk. He opened the first drawer and retrieved his revolver from it. Of typical griffon make it was a spartan thing with barely an adornment and five high caliber rounds already in its cylinder.

Five high caliber, rune-engraved, magic disrupting bullets meant to kill a goddess.

He opened the cylinder and checked the gun was indeed loaded but he didn't take long and hid it under his left wing, walking towards the door on the right wall of his office. He opened it and walked inside a dark room with several antique artifacts, mostly pieces of scrolls and paper documents about those artifacts. Important pieces of their past and his observations on them, one of the many places where his brethren hid what pieces of their past they managed to hide from the Matriarch. But the most important was the center piece of his collection: a giant statue made of black onyx sitting on the middle of the room and staring down at the entrance. A giant griffoness with her wings stretched upwards and laying on her stomach.

He hid behind one of the wood and glass stands with his back to it, weapon raised. He literally put a thousands of years old scroll with an important song from his ancestors in danger, but it would be worth it. Ending one of the princesses under the stare of old statue of the goddess was priceless compared to an old song that could be sung again. With his name to it and how he defeated the Princess of the Night.

With no windows and only one entrance, it would put her the perfect place and the darkness was better on his hunter's eyes. He left the door open; she should be drawn to it. And he waited. The perfect ambush, as efficient as an apex predator.

Not long after, she put her head inside through the door, ears perked up and big curious eyes. "Hello?"

"Come on! I'm just here to talk! Do we really have to do this?" She walked in, looking annoyed. "You know I can sense you radiating magic from behind that stand, don't you?"

He did his best but couldn't keep from grumbling and cursing to himself before holding tighter the gun, turning the corner, pointing it at her and pulling the trigger. No hesitation, as sure an aim as ever.

She 'eeped' and her magical shield manifested itself upon impact. So much for 'magical disruption to kill a goddess'. For feather's sake. Still, she yelled at him. "What is wrong with you griffons and these things?! You could hurt somepony with that!"

Well, that is the point… He shot at her twice more before she could react again, but wherever those magical wards came from they resisted the magical disruption ammunition. He dashed behind another stand. Then he heard musket fire from outside. Apparently those two idiots grew a brain, called their support and his brethren didn't take lightly to the princess and her goons waltzing into property belonging to one of them.

Her ears turned as she heard it too, and her stare hardened. "Fine. Have it your way. I promised your daughter I wouldn't hurt you, but if one of my guards is injured, I will make you regret it sorely."

He turned the corner on the other side to get a better shot, and aimed at her, but she wasn't at the door anymore.

"Damn it all." He muttered under his breath while his eyes scanned the dark environment. Every corner and nook clear to his dark-seeing eyes, but he couldn't find her anywhere. He didn't see her teleporting. He didn't hear the characteristic sound of disturbed air that followed. Suddenly, he had not even noticed, but his breathing became faster and his foreleg trembled.

His eyes scanned the environment and found no clue to where she might be.

He turned again and she came out of nowhere wielding a polearm in her telekinetic magic and its butt end hit his revolver holding paw with the force of a sledgehammer. A sharp pain flared, and he lost his grip with a scream, and then collapsed to the floor. A dagger impaled his other paw into the wood floor and he screamed again. It was over so fast he barely realized it until he was completely powerless under her stare.

"Why did you have to be like that?" She whined with her ears pulled back looking so hurt one might think she was the one with the crushed and the impaled paws. "Why can't you just be nice and live in peace in the nice world that you have all around you? Celestia is right! Creatures like you guys are the problem!"

He reached for the knife with his other paw, but he couldn't get it to move through the pain and screamed again. More gunfire sounded outside, both the distinctive sounds of muskets and of their newer firearms. Some screaming and the princess stared disapprovingly at him.

Then she spoke with a few more shades of angry. "The audacity. We gave you a near perfect world to live in and you must act like this. You didn't live in that time; you don't know the pain that your ancestors caused. Well, you should know I have killed more honorable and skilled cubs in the time of Emperor Grigor. And your daughter is lucky she won't be seeing to your funeral now that times have changed. Your kind shouldn't push your luck, however. I have a shorter temper than my sister."

"I will be right back." She rose her eyes from him to the door as more gunfire sounded. "Take some time to think about what your choices. You'll need some good explanations to give your daughter because you have implicated her on conspiracy and treason because of an antiquated ideology. You've ruined her career and ended your life a criminal and traitor."

Her hooves clopped on the wood floor and he found himself looking up to the massive onyx statue of the griffoness staring down, condemning him. He grunted and tried moving again. His impaled paw hurt and so did the other, but none hurt him more than his shattered ego or the stone cold stare of the griffoness in the statue down at him.

Mass teleportations were fun. They remined Chrysalis, and everyone around her, of just how special she was as one of the very few creatures alive that could perform such a feat. Especially when Celestia was simply going along and let her do the whole thing.

Standing on the cloud, surrounded by her Praetorians and her black-carapace soldiers and staring the white alicorn, the queen tried to understand when did Celestia's approval become so important to her.

"What?"

"Nothing." Obviously, she failed.

"What?" Celestia grinned all mischievous at her. "Do you need me to say you did a good job?"

Fortunately, she managed not to exteriorize the knee-jerk insults she thought at Celestia. Instead she coughed and spoke in the most disinterested way she could manage. "I suppose this is the place?"

They stood on a fairly large cloud overlooking a cluster of smaller ones where a formation of airships with golden hulls kept in between them, not exactly as though they were hiding. They were being discreet, trying not to draw too much attention. For a bunch of airships with golden hulls. Chrysalis couldn't be bothered to understand the individual classes of warships or even their application. She knew she should though, as one of the Majesties.

"Yes, this is the place. Come." Celestia opened her wings and jumped off the cloud, beating them to fly and Chrysalis followed with her changelings coming close behind. Hopefully they wouldn't spook any of the Royal Guards aboard those airships and get themselves shot or something.

She followed Celestia to the one airship that differed from the others. For starters it was all white with golden accents and 'her sun' on the main sails. At least this one, unlike Twilight's had guns. Three underdecks lined with guns in addition to the guns in the main deck. She didn't bother counting them. It was an oversized monstrosity with too much power and that one couldn't keep their eyes from it, much like her owner.

Three large masts and long swept-back wings and a vertical tail, both upwards and downwards, but unlike Twilight's airship this one's magical engines were protected inside its armored hull, in the aft. It wasn't alone either: at least six smaller flying warships and another large one that seemed unarmed. Also of note was a fast-looking golden airship that reminded Chrysalis of Twilight's, but somewhat larger and armed.

She decided it was best to keep her questions, and insecurities for later, after her changelings integrated with Celestia's royal Guards and the two rulers were in more discreet company. Thorax and Pharynx came along from the Crystal Empire, but for some weird reason she couldn't fathom her husband had decided he would stay with Pharynx and with the soldiers.

It didn't take long for her changelings to get sorted. The Break of Dawn's Chief Steward quickly assigned them to positions and tutoring among the present ships, so fast Chrysalis was sure they had everything prepared beforehand. It must be so good to deal with professional soldiers.

Soon she found herself by the ship's bow, next to Celestia and under a neatly placed canopy with large white cushions where they laid on their legs. Between them a small table with a golden plate holding some Saddle Arabian sweets. Small cubes made with starch and minty liquor and sprinkled with sugar. For drinking, water. Bit not simply 'water'. It was cold water with lemon slices and some sugar inside a crystal jar enchanted to keep the drink cold.

The queen pulled her ears back at the sight of Celestia biting at one of the small cube sweets. And she had thought that she squandered the Swarm's resources. Of course, Celestia actually had the resources to do that, but she would still judge.

"So, is this a warship or a flying palace?" Chrysalis examined one of the sweets while at the same time she watched Bossy, next to them, looking over the bow with a spyglass as though she knew what she was doing in the middle of all those clouds.

"It is a bit of both. It's a diplomatic tool."

"Like the airship the Lion's kid brought through the teleporter?" Chrysalis paused for a second, realizing she didn't fully understand Celestia's strategy. "You put your precious toy in their way. It's like you sacrificed him to get Twilight and Cadance safe. Doesn't sound like the sort of thing you'd do."

"I don't know what they are thinking with that thing Chrysalis. All I know is that he doesn't seem to know what he is doing with it. Furthermore, I have certainly not sacrificed Chocolate Velvet. I am confident in his ability to deal with the situation and I am sure he understands the importance of keeping Twilight and Cadance safe."

"I don't understand how you can be so sure that everything is going to be fine in this situation. What is keeping them from hurting Chocolate Velvet? Or killing all your ponies here?"

"There is a chance that they may hurt Chocolate Velvet, yes. But I doubt that they will. Grigory understands that there would be grave consequences for him and for his father if it came to that. That much I know he understands. But I have to admit that his strategy of moving that warship of theirs deep into our territory baffles me. A faster airship would've been much more useful."

"I imagine he is betting on overpowering any resistance." Chrysalis offered. "Or something."

Celestia shook her head. "I Don't doubt your ability to rule and lead the Changeling Swarm, but you're lacking in military strategy, Chrysalis."

"Well, I suppose you would know…" The queen rubbed her chin pensively.

"Look around. Look at the Break of Dawn. What do you see?"

"An alicorn jerk that can't seem to keep a conversation without trying to teach something…"

Celestia giggled. "I suppose I do indulge a little. Anyways, what I mean is that a lone vessel, as powerful as it may be is still limited. Like the old saying: he's big, but he ain't two."

"Did you say 'ain't'."

The other rolled her eyes. "What I mean is that a large vessel may carry many, many guns and soldiers, but it is still only one. It can be outmaneuvered and are typically slower and that much harder to control. But, most importantly, it consumes resources. And that is why we have supply ships. Soldiers need food. Guns need ammunition and powder. And those are the most basic things. And this is a warship. It doesn't have a lot of room for 'stuff'. It needs an armory, accommodations, accommodating the magical systems, mana batteries, etcetera. The point is that the ship not only cannot last on its own for too long, but it also cannot keep on a fight for too long and will eventually need repairs. But you can imagine that it can't hold the tools and spare parts it will need in a practical quantity. Bottom line, it is isolated. We will hunt the griffon's airship and force them to surrender, if they manage to escape the initial confrontation."

"Don't you think that The Lion's son would know that?" Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "As far as I know, he could have been teaching the kid these sorts of things since the day Gwendolen squeezed him out."

"He is adopted." Celestia explained. "It is one of the reasons I have come to accept that the Lion is fit to rule the griffons."

"How come?"

"He adamantly defends their various cultural traits, but most griffons from Snow Mountains would never adopt and raise another's cub."

"Doesn't that make him a hypocrite?"

"It depends. It makes him a sensible creature that understands the needs of the deprived comes before petty ideology." Celestia shrugged. "You should rest a bit. It will take us a while before we are in position."

She concluded by magically summoning a piece of parchment, ink and a feather and proceeded into writing a letter. Chrysalis quickly became bored but didn't want to distract Bossy as she seemed to be convinced that starring around with that spyglass (wherever in Tartarus she had found that thing) was extremely important.

She took a moment to be thankful Celestia didn't inconvenience herself with their names as did Luna. Then she discreetly stared at the white alicorn laying over her legs in the large pillow, concentrated in writing that letter, whoever it was for. She also became a little too conscious of how beautiful she was.

Such a far cry from the dirty and malnourished pegasus that barely scraped a living in the streets of Everfree. When did that happen and what was wrong with her? Celestia was becoming like a mother figure to her and the first thing in her head, after being anxious for whatever punishment she could dish out, is thinking that she is hot. Well, she is and that is just a fact. And so is Chrysalis. And also bored at that moment.

She smiled lecherously at Celestia. "Say… Ever since I captured you in Canterlot, at Cadance's marriage, there's something I've been wanting to do with you."

"Excuse me?" The other gave her the typical amused smile. "I don't know what aggravates me more. The revisionist history or the indecent proposal."

Chrysalis proudly put her hoof on her chest. "I ruled Canterlot for five whole minutes and you can't take that away from me! But that is not important. What is important is that we are past the point of crying 'indecent proposal'."

Celestia giggled. "I suppose you're right. You have a very pungent personality that endears itself to me. I am not really in the mood though, Chrysalis. Sorry. I'm a bit concerned for Chocolate Velvet and the present situation does require some focus and preparation."

The queen hummed and grinned in her condescending way. "I understand. There will be other opportunities and you're not getting out of this that easily."

Celestia giggled again and then Chrysalis quieted herself, laid on the pillow that was put there for her. Seconds later she was bored and 'distracted' again. Celestia still minded the letter.

"Excuse me." Crucible Wings approached them from behind and Chrysalis stared at the guard with a few paper folders in his mouth. "I have the files you requested."

He offered Celestia the folders in his mouth. "Chancelor Neighsay is going to relapse if he hears of this…"

Celestia opened the first folder and Chrysalis approached to look at it too while the Royal Guard waited stoically. The princess then hummed with a significant level of amusement.

The first paper in the file was a white paper with a photograph of the yellow griffoness called Galensa, with a short description of her and her history.

"Who's that?" Chrysalis asked over her shoulder.

"Galensa. Griffoness from Snow Mountains that graduated as a thaumatoengineer in Bay County University and started a research for a powerful magical weapon. I stopped her."

"Should've killed her."

"If I did, I would have robbed her of her chance of realizing how wrong she was and starting anew."

"That's horseapples." Chrysalis said calmly. "She's never going to be good."

Since she missed Celestia's accusing glare at her or the irony of what she had just said, the princess moved on to the next file, and that one she didn't know.

"Gracielle." She read aloud, looking at the photography of a beautiful white griffoness with a particularly short face adorned with caramel accents, wings and head-feathers complemented with golden eyes. It reminded Chrysalis of an owl. "Wonderbolt candidate, number one sharpshooter for the last twenty-eight classes, several prizes. Left for Snow Mountains two years ago, never joined the Wonderbolts."

She looked at the next file, a short griffon with a cocky smile, brown fur and darker head with long feathers and gray eyes. "Gewehr. Blacksmith accredited by Manehattan Ironworks. Visited several forges and smithies studying modern firearm forging techniques all over Equestria. Returned to Snow Mountains two years ago. Credited by peers for the invention of the bolt mechanism."

The next…

"Name: Gray…" What followed was a powerful looking with a dark gray, almost black body with a white head that not only wore one of Griffindell's black cuirasses but carried a spear with some sort of blue adornment. Celestia's amusement only grew. "Has been spotted contacting several known crime lords in several griffon cities, the Crystal Empire and even Canterlot. Disappeared two years ago."

Finally, there was a light gray and white griffon of slim build and icy blue eyes. "Garvie… Graduated in Medicine in Canterlot University. Toured as Royal Guard physician and earned several prizes. Left the guard and professional practice two years ago."

"This is new…" She chuckled. "Two of them were seem with Galensa and Grigory in the Baltimare teleporter. The other two were seen by witnesses after the airship teleported."

"Congratulations, Celestia." Chrysalis chuckled. "You are educating your own enemies! That is why that whole friendship crap never seemed right to me."

"Your assessment is mean spirited and also plain incorrect, Chrysalis." Celestia replied in the most petulant and unfazed way Chrysalis could have expected. "The problem isn't that we are educating our friends, as you say. The problem is that we are dealing with a crafty and resourceful individual that seems capable of turning our greatest advantages against us. I have just finished a meeting that showed a very similar facet of our enemy."

"Oh… I suppose they are not as clever as they think they are?"

"Well, they are quite clever. They have sown political disarray and found a way to split the Princesses right in the middle. They are drawing griffons to the Lion's side and I wouldn't be surprised they have plans to deal with Twilight and Cadance once they made contact. Maybe split us even further. They also managed to acquire highly-skilled and loyal agents. I'm impressed and it might be correct to say that we are already at war..."

"You're liking this, aren't you?" Chrysalis grinned at her.

Celestia smiled smugly and rubbed her chin with a hoof, looking at the files before her. "It has been quite so time since I have ever had to fight someone that managed to strike so deeply and so covertly to the point I didn't even know that they had struck until it was too late. Unfortunately for them, Grigory's impulsive maneuver has unveiled too much."

"Wait a second. I beat you once!"

"Your mother asked me not to hurt you before she ran from Equestria Heartland. Letting you win at Canterlot and allowing Cadance's love magic to defeat you was the way I found to let you approach us again and them be put in a situation that would force you to capitulate. You resisted longer than I anticipated, though."

"What?! You mean you didn't banish us?"

"You see, Chrysalis… The more you poke at the past, the more you find things you didn't want to find. Why would I banish her from Equestria? She was Luna's lover and also my friend."

"Is there more about my past that you have withheld that I should know of?"

"No." She said bluntly.

Chrysalis simply stared at her while her ears pulled back and growled. "What about the Lion's little squirt?"

"We have very little on Grigory." Celestia sighed. "He lived his whole life in Snow Mountains and all we know of him is that he was adopted from the streets of Griffonstone by The Lion and also that some foal protection agents found it weird that he never called Lady Gwendolen 'mommy' or the sorts of things foals… Cubs do. However, we know that Lady Gwendolen educated him herself and was very frustrated by that fact. Well, Lord Gilad too, but in the conversations they had with him growing up, he kept a respectful distance to Lord Gilad, even if he did recognize him as a paternal figure, albeit a distant one and a sort of goal to achieve. Lady Gwendolen, though was closer to him even though she was a harsh mistress."

"Sounds like a happy little family of psychopaths to me…" Chrysalis concluded. "And with friends like these… With access to military vessels…"

Then she laughed sarcastically. "And I was worried with the Lion, not his son. What is the kid's actual story then? Is he some sort of bastard son that Gwendolen felt the obligation to raise because she is such a good girl? So, any secrets about them too?"

"Hardly. As far as we know Lady Gwendolen may love the kid a little too much."

"Oh?"

"There are a few obscure accounts of Gwendolen protecting him a little too much."

"You are evading the question, Celestia."

"It is something gruesome, Chrysalis. I don't feel like describing it to you. It suffices to say that she may have done something horrible to cubs that hurt Grigory while he was younger. It's very nebulous and I don't know the details or even if the story is real. I shouldn't have even mentioned it."

"This is bothering me though. Why did the Lion adopt Grigory? As far as I know the griffons in that part think that it makes them less male, or something."

Celestia shrugged. "Maybe he is not as bad as you think? I am strongly convinced that he is not that bad, just dabbling with dangerous things. And the fact that he adopted a street cub makes me think that he has a better heart than most will give him credit."

The queen hummed. "Yes… I suppose we will see. I'm looking forward to meeting 'The Cub' now. Is that why you've brought me?"

"Partially." Celestia admitted. "I also don't want to leave you alone, unsupervised for too long. I also want to see what your Praetorians can do. Finally, I want them to feel appreciated and useful and this is a good opportunity for that."

"Well then…" The queen grinned again. "We'll have them give you a show."

"You are actually proud of them, aren't you?" Celestia smiled softly.

"Excuse-me, Princess." Crucible called her again and drew Chrysalis' attention too, but this time he walked in front of them accompanied by another pegasus in golden armor. Chrysalis assumed he was as crewmember of the airship.

"The Main Event is ready to part with the fleet, Princess."

"Excellent!" Celestia grinned. "Wish them good luck on their mission."

"Main Event?" Chrysalis grumbled. "What a stupid name for a warship."

"Trust me, it's very appropriate."

A small breakfast was like the feast last night, if quicker and less pompous, without the music and Gwineth's presentation. There was plentiful food and drinks, as much as a lot of griffons to cheer at the affair, but Lord Gilad didn't indulge as much as he did during the night and Gwineth barely ate at all. It made Discord think that the travel ahead wouldn't be an easy one, even on them who lived in that place.

They left Brokenhorn without much fanfare other than the presence of the city's guards and the Jarl to send them off. And the ever-present overcast sky. The Lion wore his armor and carried a light pack and axe on his back while Gwineth wore a white and black cloak with an even lighter pack on her back along with her sword.

And as Discord expected, they walked for a fair bit before taking flight and he followed them.

They seemed to go further north and deeper into the mountains, and with a few minutes of silent flight, he drew closer to the big griffon and the younger female simply watched from behind but seemed to pay more attention to the scenery.

"Other than my thanks, I think that your display of magic was rather impressive. I had never seen that sort of magic."

"Is that so?" The griffon answered, looking back at him. "I would have assumed that living in the same time as Emperor Grigor your lordship would have been witness to much more powerful griffon magic. I cannot imagine that I could hold a candle to the Emperor himself."

"Well, I've never personally met him." Discord shrugged. "He was past my time."

"I see. Still I can assure you that my control of magic may be impressive, but I still have a lot to learn."

Discord then decided to take a few chances. "I may be saying something stupid… But are you aware that no one is supposed to know about Emperor Grigor? That this griffon magic is supposed to be a secret and that griffons outside your territory just don't know of those things, and wouldn't believe it?"

He felt a bit dumb asking that, but he felt it was a better idea to start the conversation with a plain field.

Regardless, the Lion seemed to have understood his intention, and why it was a good idea to have that conversation away from the crowds. "I am aware, yes. In fact, that is what draws many griffons to my hold. We believe that Princess Celestia has associated with King Grover and both have erased his history from our records. We have direct descendants of his within our midst, including myself and we see this as a violation of the Alicorn Concordat."

Whatever in Tartarus was the Alicorn Concordat, Discord mumbled.

"The Princess Meddling Accord!" Gwineth flew 'backstroke' past them.

"Ah. That." Discord pulled at his beard. "I see. Hum… Celestia and Grover did that, alright. But Celestia's motivation had little to do with the griffons. It was a problem with the ponies that caused her to do that deal with Grover… Though I think that she considered him quite right in his intentions to rid the griffons of that particular past."

"I understand." The Lion said calmly. "But I don't care for what Grover may or may not have thought. The Princess must understand that we want our true past to be recognized as such as much as we want our customs to be accepted. If it cannot be so, then I am afraid there is no place for us in the Confederacy. We are not afraid of negotiation, however. I understand that I may be asking a lot, but she is also asking much from us."

"Well, I believe that we still have a good common ground from which we can talk, equal to equal." That was important in friendship, right? "Princess Celestia is very reasonable, and also are the councilors she finds in the other princesses."

"Well, that is one of the reasons we still have not gone to war." The big griffon smiled at him. Discord hoped that was his attempt at a joke.


	20. Superior

They traveled rather fast and Discord was happy he could keep up the pace because of the weird magic in the region. Or rather, with the magical disturbance in the region. Witnessing the Lion perform his own magic and Gwineth's sword dance, also having had some time to reflect on the things he saw, he decided he should probably pay more attention to that voice in the wind.

Easier said than done. He couldn't make out the meaning of the words even if he could speak and understand their language with his magical translator. That was likely due to the fact he was 'listening' to the spell, not to the uttering of the words themselves. He did notice that its power fluctuated and that it was weaker at the present, near to high noon. It made him wonder how much of the overcast sky was related to the spell and how it related to the magic the sun itself radiated.

Another funny thing he noticed is that the same magic that seemed to slow his advance before seemed to hasten theirs. It was a difficult thing to explain, so subtle it was. He wasn't even sure if it was about space, time, or even their perception of the travel. Whoever cast that spell was actively watching them and adjusting it. It was almost enough to make his hairs stand, especially because of the way it was eerily easy to forget that they were being watched.

An innocent conversation with his travelling companions might shine some light into the subject, but he had decided he would wait until he was alone with either to start such conversation. Learning more about them would be fine too. He was curious and information was always good anyways.

Such an opportunity presented itself soon when Lord Gilad called a rest for lunch. They landed by a small grouping of trees on a soft mound that provided some surveyance to the surrounding area, a featureless snowfield flanked by wooded areas and following a path in between the mountains and the small forests. The sky, eternally overcast.

"I should find us something to eat in these woods." Gilad said, and stared intently at the female. "Behave yourself, Gwineth."

She smiled devilishly an held her face with childish glee. "I'll be a proper Snow Mountains maiden!"

He didn't like the way she mocked whatever concern Gilad had, but turned and flew to the nearby woods, as though it didn't really bother him and soon disappearing between the trees. Turning to her, Discord found she had taken off her coat and was splayed like a big cat on her back, with her wings open over the snow, and not an ounce of modesty, wiggling like one of those wiggly worm gelatin candies.

Though he had to admit that the snow would certainly be refreshing after the exertions of hours of flying at the pace they kept. When she was done, she jumped upright, stood on her four legs, and shook her body and wings.

"So, we might be here a while." She piped. "Wanna talk about something?"

"Yes." He said curiously. "Can you hear the voice in the wind?"

She gave him an amused smile and her wings flared. "So, you can hear Her? Hum… I suppose that you should."

"Hear who?"

"And I guess that not even you know everything."

"Ah…" He gave her a knowing grin. "It's the harpy."

"Yes. The Harpy, silly." Her amused smile grew. "Most griffons can't hear. Only on special occasions."

"What is the Harpy?" He put his hands on his hips. "I don't remember anything about her. Him. Whatever."

"Hum… So, you really don't know everything…" She said curiously, but her tone disguised an attempt at avoiding the conversation that he found particularly amusing. "I am not sure I know myself."

He chuckled then. "Well, I think you are interesting too. Tell me about you!"

She flapped her eyes at him, playfully. "Oh, you think so?"

But then she shifted to a less enthusiastic manner. "Eh… I was born in Thunderpeak. Lived with my parents until I was nine when they just up and left. Then I lived with my big brother until I met Lady Gwendolen and she made me see that I was wasting my life on that loser and in that dump we lived in."

"Tough beginnings then?" He crossed his arms and stared curiously.

"We didn't have money for jackshit and it seemed like every single griffon in the area was actively looking for was ways to screw us. In more than one way…"

That sounded weird. "How does that happen? I thought that there was some sort of monthly allowance from the government."

"Yeah. It is great when your big brother isn't blowing it all on alcohol and drugs. And then refused to get some actual sort of help even when the social agents knocked on our door on an almost daily basis. And I was too dumb… Had some sort of misplaced loyalty. You know… Family."

He didn't actually 'know'. That sort of attachment was new to him, but he thought that he understood enough to try and not say something stupid. He didn't want to offend her or something.

She shrugged. "The Children of the Harpy thrive in adversity, and I guess I am a good example. It made me what I am today and I really don't feel like I lost a lot when I left that place. I just didn't see it at the time because I was stuck in the mediocrity of those lesser griffons. Heck… I don't even miss my brother or my parents."

"I thought you weren't supposed to discuss the Harpy with outsiders." Either she was easy to lead in a conversation or he was… Either way, it was working.

"Those are simp laws." She waved a paw at the notion with an expression that would be more well-placed on someone that had just eaten something spoiled. "I am special. I was supposed to be the next Queen of the Griffons with Grigory after Lord Gilad and Lady Gwendolen, but he likes Gallensa, so he mated her first. Ugh… I'm so much more fun and experienced!"

"Well, since you're being chatty, can you explain the way you use the word 'queen'? I've talked to another griffon who used it in another context."

"We also use queen in a similar context the ponies use 'mare'. Except a 'queen' is supposed to be an attractive female of reproductive age, not just any adult female." She gesticulated with a paw, explaining, but stopped for a second. "And also 'queen' as the female ruler."

"Creepy." Discord grunted. "Rarity told me they use the same terms for cat breeding."

"Well, I'm a 'queen', so it's fine by me!" She gave him a 'non-simp' grin and then shrugged. "The Harpy called us that. Millenia ago. We'll probably do worse with the ponies once we've put them in the pastures with the cows."

"Ha ha. Funny sense of humor you have, don't you? Whatever happened to your brother?"

"Got killed in a jail. He worked in a factory and made some wrong friendships. It was actually great that he died, and Lady Gwendolen took me in. I was seventeen at the time and she is very generous to those whom she likes."

"So, I suppose Lady Gwendolen brought you here? What else?"

"She's brought me to Snow Mountains and taught me about my lineage. I've been moving from town to town, learning stuff about my kind and about the great plans the Harpy has for me, with her help. Really, she's been like a real mother to me."

Interesting, the way she spoke many things, barely giving off any information at all. "But I thought that your enchanted prince was taken."

She shrugged again. "The 'only mate once in a lifetime' is another simp rule… Not all rules apply to everyone and Gallensa is going to find out that this one doesn't apply to Grigory. It's gonna be alright, though. Gal is a going to be a good girl and share with the others. Mostly me."

"I see. What about him? Is he going to like being 'shared'?"

"If there is one thing I've learned about male griffons, especially the ones in high places, is that getting used to nice company is easy." Her mocking smile started to disturb him. "And that is why she is going to put up with it. She doesn't have a choice, and she can be replaced. She's not that special."

Ponies didn't care about this sort of thing, usually. Obviously, they didn't like being cheated on, but it was about the betrayal of trust, and 'agreements' were commonplace. His mind jumped back to Celestia, Luna, Chrysalis, Thorax and Chocolate Velvet. And countless other examples, even among his friends and the huge 'parties' that happened in the Bordello of Candy. Ponies were fine as long as everypony was in agreement and nopony got hurt in the process. But griffons seemed to have a custom that they would only have a partner their entire life. Maybe they were being hypocritical because they wanted to feel like they were special over something, but inside they simply wanted to have as much fun as the ponies. He didn't know for sure and had never thought about it. Maybe the whole thing was simply an artificial difference to create the 'us versus them' mentality. Or even further, maybe this rule existed just so it could be broken by the 'special ones'.

Ponies did usually put a limit in offspring, unless there was some special condition, as Discord had heard with Shining Armor and Chrissy. But that was Cadance involved and she was weird too. Regardless of that comparison, the whole thing seemed 'off' with the whole tradition thing he thought the griffons had going. At closer scrutiny, it all seemed very self-serving towards something he hadn't discovered yet.

But what really worried Discord was that this Gwineth seemed to have a perverse delight in ruining it for Grigory and that Gallensa he didn't know. Maybe there was something between them that Discord didn't know, besides Grigory's position. Or maybe the problem, again, was this 'Harpy'.

The more he heard about her, here and there, the more he felt like he needed to make it to this city, Griffindell, and meet Lady Gwendolen because it sounded like she knew what was going on with the Harpy.

Still, his attention returned to the griffoness that stared curiously at him. "You know, you had struck me as the independent type."

"I am independent. But doesn't mean that I won't let the males drool all over me, get me things because they find me attractive. They better treat me like I'm damn special because I am. Besides, dating the chosen one has some perks. I got screwed too much in life already. You know that utopia thing ponies say? It's bullshit. If you're born the wrong way, in the wrong place you're screwed. I got my privileges now and I'm gonna use them."

"How very self-serving." Discord teased her playfully. "Princess Twilight would not only say that your privilege is meant to help those that are less privileged, but also that all creatures are special. How about using those privileges to help others that are in a bad spot as you were before?"

She laughed. "Screw them. I suffered before I became what I am, and I had to work hard. Princess Twilight is an idiot and a hypocrite, because if there is one that is special, it is her and those alicorn princesses she lives with."

She chuckled, completely amused. "Please… The only reason the ponies have it easy is because Princess Celestia happens to be nice and subscribes to the idea. If you want to have it good in here, you must make your superiors happy and be competent. I can assure you that Lady Gwendolen would've dropped me right back in the Thunderpeak slums had I failed to live up to her expectations."

Before he could ask anything else, she turned the conversation on him.

"What about you, though? Why did you create the Lost Herd? I mean, can't you just snap your fingers and get stuff done?"

It occurred to him that if he mentioned his perceived corruption of the ponies, he would eventually end up validating their argument that the Windigos could indeed be blamed on the ponies. They could, but not in the way she would assume, like the little griffon girl on the way to Brokenhorn. That was the whole point of sending Twilight and Cadance to Naminé… Hard facts, detached from the context were the way to doom in that whole mess.

Wait… What if Lady Gwendolen was teaching griffons wrong things intentionally? Or, more likely, she was herself wrong. Before he answered to Gwineth a new sense of purpose dawned on him. He ought to teach them the right thing! Whatever went wrong in Gwineth's life might have been avoided if Lady Gwendolen… He struggled with his thoughts for a while. If she 'understood' things like Celestia does. Stuff like she teaches in her school.

But that was a conversation to be had with Lady Gwendolen.

"It's not really how magic works. Not even my magic." He said. "And I was sick. I was wrong, and I've made a mistake. Everything would've been perfect had I not created that mess."

"It is what allowed Emperor Grigor to unite the Griffon Warlords. For us, it was great. It culled the weak off the pride, and that is exactly what we need today. The south is full if degenerate disgraces that hide under Celestia's wings like they forgot that she goes against almost everything the Harpy teaches!"

Oh well… Not like talking to her right then would help a lot. He needed to talk to that Gwendolen.

"I guess that is a valid point. But I just thought of something. Did Lady Gwendolen teach you this magic of yours? Or is it your sword that is magical?" That should get her to shift her attention.

"Hah!" She blurted out petulantly. "I can guarantee you that this sword wouldn't do much in the paws of any lesser griffon. I was told that in the right paws it can pierce anything."

"I am not terribly knowledgeable in magic swords, but I'm pretty sure that it is a tall order for even the best one of them."

"Well, yeah. But when the weaponsmiths say such things, they mean it within the reasonable. At least, that is what the blacksmith in Griffindell told me when I said what you just told me. Do you want to know what he told me then?"

"What?"

"That in Grigor's time, a Swordmaiden with this thing could kill an alicorn princess." She grinned mischievously. "It is funny. Most of our blacksmiths are trying so hard to come up with more and more powerful guns. For our soldiers and for our airships. When our greatest power is within ourselves. And that is what Lady Gwendolen taught me. As anyone with some understanding of such things will tell you, swords, spears, bows… These older weapons are simply better for working with magic. So, you see, a gun is a simp weapon. And this sword…"

She grabbed the thing from the ground, where she had left it with her coat and cradled it in her forelegs like it was a cub. "The sword maker told me that this is a weapon meant for special griffons. It can direct magic into offensive spells. It could even sever your bound to the land of the mortals. It can kill an alicorn princess."

"Of course, Lady Gwendolen laughed and told us that no weapon could ever injure the Lord of Chaos. Sure enough, I took her side in the discussion. But I made a bet with him that if his sword could pierce the Lord of Chaos' coat, I would pay him trice his original payment."

"Ah-ha." He nodded with a condescending grin, what a cute attempt at manipulation. She was compelling, but nothing close to a Queen Chrysalis. "I'd imagine Lady Gwendolen didn't take nicely to you making bets with her money?"

"Actually, she liked the idea. Because she likes me acting by myself. After all, she is sponsoring me to be something special."

"So, I suppose you expect me to let you prick me with that thing…" He wasn't amused.

"I did answer your questions, didn't I?" She said all innocence. "Come on, I'm not going to hurt you."

Enough games…

"Well, I am sorry to disappoint you, but a simple needle can 'pierce the Lord of Chaos' coat'." She blinked all surprise at him. "Yes… They drew my blood in Canterlot University, for 'science'. You should know that Princess Luna is afraid of needles too. So, I don't think that you need a magical sword to actually hurt a Princess. Or even me. It's more the magic that one would envelop themselves in… And we would have a hard time testing that safely, wouldn't we?"

She frowned and pouted her frustration. "Lame."

And then she laid on the snow and didn't talk to him anymore, which was good because he feared he would burst out laughing if she made him talk. Silly 'kitten'. He didn't know what that was about, but it certainly wasn't about any bet.

Hopefully it wouldn't take too long for Lord Gilad to arrive after that.

The small private room in the _Magic of Friendship_ became an inscrutable mess of notes, diagrams and piles of books, notebooks and scattered writing feathers everywhere and also a few cups of apple juice here and there.

Meanwhile Starlight Glimmer insistently looked for something in one of the books in the airship's small assortment of textbooks. Despite knowing that she could use her help figuring things out and organizing her notes, she seemed to be hunting for something important, so Twilight let her be. She had already learned the lesson that letting her friends do their thing often produced great results.

"Wow… That is… Uh… A lot." Twilight scratched her head looking at her notes though. Actually, one of her many bunches of notes.

"Sorry, Twilight." Cadance's ears sagged from her head. "It was a lot."

Flurry hoofed affectionately at her from her seat with Shinning Armor, next to Cadance.

"Are we sure all that was for real?" Pinkie spoke cautiously, next to Applejack who still wasn't convinced of the Princess' mental soundness. "I mean… Crystal palace inside your head. Caveponies, magical storm… Being a statue… All this talk of goddesses… Uh… How do I put it?"

"Yes, Pinkie." Cadance was too tired to be angry at the pony and knew that she didn't mean ill with her words. Cadance had come to know her enough to know that she was worried about her. "I know it all sounds crazy, but that was what I saw."

"Well, for one, several parts of Cadance's vision coincide perfectly with what we've been told and build upon those events. So, there is no reason to think that the palace wasn't real. And Princess Luna seemed worried, but what Cadance told us. That also indicates those visions were true."

"Actually, it makes a lot of sense if you think about it." Twilight nodded. "I mean, if this Palace of the Self does exist and Princess Luna's magic allows her to access it, then it would make sense that something going wrong with the spell could give Cadance access to it, especially if she is already supposed to access one part of it. Something I find even more interesting is that Cadance's description of the branch of the Tree of Harmony makes a lot of sense, calling back to what Discord told us."

"What about you, Twilight?" Pinkie looked at her. "Cadance saw your cutie mark there too!"

"I have nothing, Pinkie." She shook her head and then looked back at Cadance. "It is possible that it's not our cutie marks on the doors, but the symbols from the doors in our cutie marks. I wish I could go there and see it. Could, perhaps, replicate Luna's magic, Cadie?"

"I don't think that I can. It seemed like it was a complete freak accident." Cadance sighed. "I would like to go back there too. If only to see if I could find out more about it."

She would also like to do some renewing in the Throne of Love, but she felt it was better to keep that tidbit to herself. It felt like an old house she's had for ages but never live in. It simply called to her.

Twilight sighed too and shrugged. "Maybe with some time we could find a way to access it… Maybe when this whole thing blows over, Princess Luna can help us… Or something. I don't know."

"I don't know if we will be coming back from this, Twilight." Cadance still had her ears down and she somehow seemed even more tired than before.

Twilight stared at her for a second before speaking. Nobody needed her words to see that she was worried. "You're just tired, Cadance. I know it looks awful, but I do believe that our friendship can reunite us from any quarrel. At least with the Princesses Celestia and Luna I know… If they have been fooling us, then I wouldn't want to reunite anyways. But the important things is that the reason Celestia and Luna are intent on capturing us is that there is something that lies beyond the facts that can be told, and that thing is what scares them. Something they must hide for our own sake? I still believe that Princess Celestia had a very good reason to do what she did."

"That sounds like an excuse, Twilight." Applejack told her, but Twilight simply shook her head again.

"No. Remember how Chrysalis told us about how Star Swirl was looking for the Goddesses Reborn? By itself, this piece of information has a completely different meaning from Cadance's vision. By his conversation with the priestess, the Children of the Sun were ponies that already believed in the Goddess. Of course, they would call Princesses Celestia and Luna gods… Whatever that actually means. But they were made to believe something that Star Swirl didn't believe at all."

"So?" Rainbow asked.

"So…" Twilight insisted. "The two points of view paint completely different versions of Star Swirl. And the one in Cadance's vision came with a context that was lost. That is why we must find Naminé. If Discord is right, she can give us these memories, rather than relayed facts that lack context and emotional impact."

"Twilight is absolutely correct." Rarity interjected with a hoof on the table. "She can help us reach information that nopony else can. I also believe that we need a more careful examination of what Princess Cadance has told us… It sounds like a solid foundation from which to question Naminé when we do find her. Does your Highness think that you can go over it all with us princess, Princess? That is… I don't know if we could just go to This Naminé and ask her what is it that the Princess hid."

"Absolutely, Lady Rarity." Cadance smiled warmly, but Twilight noticed that something seemed off. She didn't know if the others noticed it too, but Cadance didn't seem quite like herself for some reason. Maybe she was only tired?

"Cadie, do you need to rest for a little bit?" Shinning caressed her back very softly. Twilight nodded at that… He had noticed it too.

"No. I need to figure out what all of that meant. And I need to figure out what happened to Daffodil."

"Hum… She passed away?" Twilight rose an eyebrow at that, despite thinking it was a good start. "I mean, your vision likely covered thousands of years. It was weird enough that you simply knew things, such as what was the Throne of Love or who that Daffodil was."

"No…" Cadance frowned a little. "She returned… As a different pony, but I recognized her every time by her soul. Or something.

Twilight's eyebrow rose some more as she checked her notes. "Except you only saw her twice. Once as the original Daffodil, and then again as the priestess when the Windigos arrived and after."

"Yes. But I knew she was missing when I saw the new temple in the Capital. Besides, I know she was present all the time before that!"

"What do you mean?"

"I saw her many times before the Windigos. All the way from the caves while the ponies transitioned from the Stone Age into the Three Tribes. She was never too far away from me… I witnessed her aging, passing away and then reappearing to enroll as my priestess and becoming their leader every time. I mean, they didn't always call themselves priestesses and priests, but that was the idea. After all, that is what they started calling themselves. Not only that, but I also remember that she was the one that listened to me the most and carried my will to all the ponies with the most excellence."

The ponies around the table exchanged confused and worried stares for a while and Cadance wondered if she had said something wrong. "What?"

"That wasn't in the story you told us, Princess." Applejack was the one to tell her. "At least not in that way!"

"It wasn't?" Cadance blinked twice at that.

"Hum…" Pinkie smiled sheepishly. "Maybe you really should take a nap? Just a small, itsy-bitsy little nap?"

Cadance saddened. "You don't believe me."

"I do believe you, Cadance…" Twilight told her, but she seemed as worried as the others, even more, as did Shining Armor. "We all do. We're just worried. You're not well. You clearly need some rest."

There was a bit of relieved atmosphere as Cadance seemed to accept that, despite remaining.

"Maybe she can remember things now?" Rainbow offered. "I mean… Things changed inside her head, right?"

"I suppose that is it, Lady Rainbow Dash." Cadance nodded with a frown and Twilight blinked at what she said. Who called Rainbow 'Lady Rainbow Dash'? She supposed it was a proper treatment, giver her title, but is sounded so weird coming from Cadance! Regardless, the pink alicorn went on. "Sounds like I'm recalling things from a very distant past. I just hope I'm not imagining things. It is all so fuzzy."

"To be completely honest, this whole ball of yarn sounds like the recipe to go crazier than a soup sandwich." Applejack said. At least she sounded concerned, and Cadance had to admit that she was right. "I think you need help, Princess… From somepony that actually knows what they're talking about."

Celestia-damned Applejack always being right, Rarity grumbled. "Well, while I have to agree that it may not be healthy to break into one's own mind like that, I have to say that this whole story is intriguing, and that bottling it up might end up doing more damage than not."

"I don't really think that this is going to hurt me. I mean, remembering would be good, right?" Cadance frowned.

Twilight frowned too, but in a different way. "You're talking about those events as tough you were a part of them, and not something you've witnessed. I mean, when you were talking about the fight in the Capital, I imagined it was simply because you felt emotionally attached to the story you were seeing unfold, but right now you just spoke as though you were there the whole time. I feel like those memories aren't yours."

Cadance blinked a few times again. "You're right… I did do that."

"You ponies see?" Applejack said. "This ain't healthy."

"I think that the issue here is the line where Cadance and this 'Amore' or 'Lady of the Heart' start and end." Twilight put her hoof in her leg. "I'm a bit worried. Where do you think this line is?"

"I don't think that it exists, Twilight." Cadance shook her head softly. "I think that I, Cadance, and the Lady of the Heart are the same."

"That sounds dangerous and incorrect." Twilight spoke softly. "Think with me… If Naminé is a pony with a special magic that allows her to see memories that belong to the soul, that means we're likely not supposed to casually see memories from past lives. Those being past ponies with whom we share a soul, the piece of magic that animates our bodies. Logically, it seems like what makes us an individual is a conjunction of soul and our own experiences, which are separated from the ones of those past ponies. Each pony begins and ends at the moment the soul and body are joined and then when they separate. It is a logical conclusion."

"The problem is that this is anecdotal… I never saw a published study on that, and all we know is folk lore. I suppose Naminé could tell us. Ugh…" Not to mention the pony with the cutie mark that was on the door to the 'Throne of Life'… But… Ugh… Best to not even mention that.

Twilight sat back at her chair and shifted her head thoughtfully. "It would make sense with the way Discord thought ponies worked in the past. He never realized that killing them ended that individual. And why he thought they were somehow broken and the whole thing needed to be restarted. I suppose that we were really important, if it is also true that we were the ones that made the magic work. Huh…"

"Isn't that line between one pony and another arbitrary, though?" Cadance argued back. "Because I can recall those memories."

"You can because things got broken, somehow."

"Yes." Rarity rose a hoof. "But memories do seem to get imprinted on the soul, and not only that, but they clearly bled into the pony that Cadance is now. Princess Luna locked those memories away, if the imagery Princes Cadance described was correct. She should recall those memories naturally. It seems."

"Huh…" Twilight stared blankly for a while. "You're right. That is odd. I'm pretty sure that ponies don't normally do, and it is a bit of a stretch to imagine Princess Luna locks away memories for all ponies."

"Maybe we are different." Twilight grimaced. "It would explain this whole mess with this dream-vision."

"You sound concerned over this, Twilight." Rarity spoke again.

"I'm not special, Rarity. I'm just a pony as anypony else."

"Horseapples you're not special." Rainbow glared. "You're special. In a good way. But you are."

"Then all of us are, Rainbow." Twilight spat back. "All of us have something that is unique and important. And I don't mean us, I mean every single being that is alive in our world. So, Princess Celestia can raise the sun… Well, do you guys remember Party Favor? She can't do what he can with those balloons. And I may be good at magic, but I can't bake a cake to save my life, but Pinkie can. Remember what Discord told us: Harmony gives us things to do. To Princess Celestia it gave the sun. To me, magic. To Pinkie, baking."

"Well…" Rainbow struggled with the words. "You're more special!"

"Thanks, Rainbow… I guess. It's just that… Going by Cadance's first vision… Well, ponies as a race were meant to 'start' the world. Or something like that. I can't think of anything more special than that!"

Then Starlight Glimmer coughed and drew their attention when she raised her eyes from the book she was reading. "Speaking of starting… Princess Cadance, what was it that Discord said about the ponies and the statues in your dream?"

She hummed, squinted and strained her thoughts for a bit. "That I… I mean, the goddess thought, and they obeyed. Or something like that. But it was not like she did… He was confused about it. Then he said they weren't supposed to remember the goddess."

Starlight thought for a second, with her hoof in her chin, but then her eyes shot open and her expression changed completely. "Oh, wow. Hum… Wow!"

Twilight grinned. "Talk to us, Glim!"

"Okay… Uh… This is a wild guess. Based on a theory that has been rejected. But… If what Princess Cadance told us represents the truth, it would make so much sense that it is just crazy how real this could be."

Nopony, or dragon, said anything and they just stared at her. Even Flurry Heart did, and also the pegasus crewponies trying to listen in from the outside and thought that nopony noticed. "So… Some decades ago, a pony archeologist called Jungle Jaynest published a paper about her findings when comparing old texts from griffon and pony cultures. Fictional stories, mostly in scrolls and some wall and vase paintings."

The others followed.

"She noticed a strange difference between those: while griffons seemed to talk about things characters did and things that happened to them, they also spoke of what these characters felt in relation to those events. But the older pony ones seemed to only speak of things that ponies did and things that happened to them, never about what the characters felt about those events. Only in more recent works did ponies start creating stories in the same way."

"Her work was rejected, though. It lacked evidence and seemed circumstantial. Contrary to present evidence." Starlight concluded.

While most of the present simply stared at her as though they expected her to say something else, not understanding the point, Twilight's jaw hanged from her mouth and she gasped. "Are you saying she found that ponies of the past lacked the capacity for introspection? That is just not possible! If that was the case, ponies wouldn't be able to function properly… They would be incapable of understanding their own needs. Things such as… 'I ate because I was hungry. Or even understand what other ponies felt in relation to things'. They wouldn't be able to function because they would need an external indication of things that happened to them!"

"That is what they told her. That it was likely a stylistic choice. But…" Starlight's ears fell a little. "Princess Luna said that the Palace of the Self was a left-over of our creation. A place where a Goddess of Love literally told ponies who to be in love with. Which was exactly what Cadance saw happening in her vision."

Ponies still weren't sure what those two were talking about, but Twilight's eyes grew even bigger and her jaw dropped even lower. "Oh my gosh! The Lady of the Heart was a voice in their heads telling them who to love! Was that Luccenoturna doing the same but telling ponies how to build things. What to feel about things? OH MY GOSH! Ponies didn't think for themselves? The goddesses thought for them?"

"Daffodil said, in my vision, that she must go where I commanded her. And I have found one or two tales that referred to Princess Celestia as a goddess. But… There is also the tale of Mother Farfalla, that mentions a very weird version of Luna."

"Well, colloquially, it seems rather trivial to call the Princess a goddess." Rarity said. "She single-hoofedly moves the sun. Something that took several unicorns in the past, not to mention that it seemed to damage their magic. If this whole story is even true."

"Hum… This seems a bit silly…" Pinkie complained while envisioning Princess Luna following a pony and pointing at things and saying their names.

"It seems silly because our minds work in a different way, independent. And most importantly, from the outside, you couldn't realize that was the case. Unless they told you that the goddess commanded them to do something." Twilight explained. "Maybe they weren't fully dependent, but the goddesses helped, somehow."

"I don't think that they literally heard their voices, Twilight." Starlight frowned next. "By the way Cadance described it, it seemed as though it was something deeper than that. More like they literally thought for us. Or with us. Like… They were walking us through the process of becoming sentient. Holding our hooves while we learned how to think for ourselves."

Twilight nodded at Starlight's opinion. "I wonder… What Amore perceived as ponies not listening to her anymore might have been ponies becoming independent."

"Shouldn't the goddess have expected that, then? Instead of freaking out ponies stopped listening to her?" Shining asked.

"It is possible that she didn't understand what was happening. She may not have realized that she was teaching ponies how to love and that they wouldn't need her guidance anymore." Twilight explained and nodded to herself. "And then, the Palace of the Self and the Throne of Love is what remained of whatever magical mechanism that allowed her to do that."

"It seemed that herself became more complex as the time past and ponies themselves became more complex. Until she became independent from them, and thus she could fly around near the end of the vision. All of that could've been because she became more complex as their belief in her became more complex as their own way of thinking became more complex and introspective!" Cadance gasped. "I mean, the goddess already was more independent than they were… I think. But she became more, as they became more."

"Uh… Does that make any sense?" Twilight asked the others.

"I'm legitimately starting to think you two drank some spoiled apple juice!" Applejack grimaced. "But I think that it does!"

"Now that I think about it…" Cadance mused with a distant stare for a second. "That does sound right. Thinking back to it, I don't think that I actually talked to them until they actually built a temple. It was weird that I was stuck inside the statues though. Did they change their way of seeing the goddess? While in the past they may not have realized that it was a different entity than they were, but as they learned and became more complex, the goddess shifted to an outside entity."

"Maybe you weren't in the statues." Starlight spoke again. "Er… The Goddess wasn't. She was inside their heads, but their belief that she was in the statues made her act like that. That is called a fetish… Not that fetish, Rainbow! An inanimate object that is worshiped for its perceived magical powers, often thought to be inhabited by a spirit. It is a bit awkward with that definition but seems to be the case in the vision. And given how everything goes back to magic…"

There was a bit of silence until Pinkie spoke again, with some doubt and not looking very sure of what she was saying. "This is crazy! Did the ponies create the alicorns? What about the four alicorns that the first ponies drew in the caves? Didn't Discord say that they were supposed to have forgotten them?"

"Yes… Those definitively were different entities, outside their minds." Twilight frowned. "They seemed to be older than the ponies."

"Maybe 'created' is the wrong word." Fluttershy concluded. "Maybe, ponies summoned them in the end. It would make sense with the end of Princess Cadance's vision. Maybe they existed, in some way we don't understand and created the ponies, and then ponies brought them to the world, like they did with the Windigos and Discord. Gradually, because they didn't forget them."

Rainbow then huffed and her chest got all puffed up when her ears pulled back. "How could those jerks have done what they did? That Blueblood plothole conspired to murder the senators! Who does that? In that situation!"

Cadance frowned. "They maneuvered everything so that Cinnamon's soldiers would be forced to go out and expose themselves. It's vile."

"Well, talk about something being wrong with the unicorns…" Rarity frowned. "As Discord said."

"I hope those guys died in a very painful way!" Rainbow concluded.

"We need a second conversation with Discord! He clearly withheld information. I too want to know more about the events that followed, especially with the griffon letters in context." Twilight grumbled and then shuddered. "Do you guys think that alicorns today are those four… I don't know what to call them… Primordial beings that created the ponies?"

"Well, darling… I mean…" Rarity stared with some annoyance at Twilight. "There were four of them, they had wings and horns. One was related to the sun, the other to the moon. There was one related to love and the other… Well, I can't claim she was related to friendship, but she had a necklace or something with six shinny stones. When it came to the point the ponies had built temples to them one was about statecraft, the other was about… Philosophy? The third was, unsurprisingly, love and the fourth had a place where ponies and other races would gather to discuss their issues."

"There are just too many coincidences." Rarity concluded, unimpressed.

"But I keep thinking back to what Discord told us." Twilight complained. "That whatever is wrong with Princess Celestia's soul is related to this whole thing, and also that we should be aware of preconceptions and first impressions. That everything has a meaning within its context. Every time we say that we know things, I feel like we're jumping to conclusions. Dangerous conclusions."

Twilight felt like her words had the desired impact because the others made silence again, until Rainbow spoke. "Whatever happened to 'big Twilight'?"

Twilight looked at her notes. "Matriarch Grimoire Sparkle. Legate of the First Battlehorn Legion, apparently. I suppose she died in the fight with the Lost Herd before whatever happened."

Pinkie giggled obnoxiously. "She jinxed her entire bloodline."

Twilight simply shrugged though. "I think it is possible that I am her descendant. Or of one of her relatives. I don't know. It's not impossible since it seems as though bloodlines were important to them. What about Cinnamon Flameheart, though? By what Cadance told us, she died. But she was alive in the griffon's letter."

"Maybe they healed her." Fluttershy said. "There are many powerful healing potions today and I don't think that they would be impossible at that time. Especially with how important and powerful that pony seemed to be."

"I believe it is more pressing to understand what happened at the end." Rarity said. "The ponies seemed to have summoned the alicorns. But Discord killed them? And… they were reborn in the Alicorn Tetrarchy of today."

"Rarity, nopony calls us that." Twilight whined at her. "We're simply 'The Princesses'."

"Oh, come now, Twilight." Rarity grinned at her. "Just as everypony simply calls the Alicorn Concordat as 'The Princess Meddling Accord'. It is the same difference. The important thing is that you could be the very same alicorn that had the six jewels, same as Cadance could be Amore, which for some reason is even in her full name. And also, as Celestia and Luna are the alicorns of the sun and the moon. Or that you are somehow connected to those."

"Yeah, Twilight. Your cutie mark is in one of the doors Cadance saw." Spike said. "We're just not sure what it means."

"What do you think, Princess?" Applejack touched Cadance's leg. "I'd figure you have better insight than all of us."

"Didn't you say that I'm crazy?" Cadance frowned at her, easily slipping back into the conversation.

To what Applejack shrugged. "Twilight might be crazier than you as far I'm concerned. I mean, I know her enough to know and it is a distinct possibility that I am the only sane pony in here anyways."

That did get a chuckle out of Cadance. "I don't know, Applejack. I'm a bit confused. I did feel like it was me in that vision, but I also know that it is likely because of my point of view. Maybe I am the goddess… Maybe I just have her memories because something weird happened. I don't even know for sure when my life started. I mean… I think I was alive for much longer than I thought if the memories that Luna had locked were an indication. Though, it is possible that those were all of them, not those of this lifetime. I don't know! I'm confused because I'm sure Discord killed me… Or Amore. And that memory was just a normal one. I mean… I can't even assume that it is a 'normal memory"! I don't really know anything!"

She continued. "I think it is so weird that they locked those memories from us. That they wouldn't let us have access to the Palace of the Self when I suppose we are as important as they are. Why did they do that? I mean…"

She became frantic, and her voice pained. "Did they put me in the orphanage? Because… I feel as though they tried to contain me when Princess Celestia literally put you, Twilight, in a collision course with your destiny!"

"I understand." Twilight told her and got her sanctimonious face on, meaning to go further, but Fluttershy stopped her.

"Princess… You are judging Princess Celestia too harshly. Maybe she was as lost as you are today. She might have been trying to do her best! And the best she managed ended with you among us."

Cadance felt like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Fluttershy was right, and Twilight took the word again. "But what happened to you may not have been her doing. At least not entirely. Luna wasn't even present when you were born."

Cadance gasped. "You're right! Somehow the timeline doesn't fit! She was Nightmare Moon, banished to the moon when I was born! But… That was Princess Luna's magic!"

"We need more information." Twilight said, and then pleaded her. "Don't judge them too harshly like I know you've been doing."

"Yes… You're right."

"But what do you feel, Cadance?" Twilight asked. "About the vision?"

Cadance's head hung for a second, then she looked back at them. "I think that I was the pony… Or whatever the Goddess was. Or the Lady of the Heart was. I know things that I shouldn't know and that may be a consequence of my memories waking up again. Or maybe her memories are just being thrust in between my own? I don't know. But I feel as though she and I are the same pony. Entity. Thing. I don't know about being a goddess. All I know is that I can tell pony hearts who to love and that I'm a freak with wings and a horn. Is this a bad thing? Being that entity?"

Twilight frowned at that. "Maybe we're trying to create an artificial distinction where there isn't one. Ponies don't usually use the word 'goddess', but I've heard yaks and diamond dogs, and even dragons calling Princess Celestia that. It is possible that it is a scary word that has no intrinsic meaning other than what we give it."

"Isn't that so for all words?" Starlight shrugged. "They are just labels for ideas we want to communicate. The context is important. Supposedly, a goddess would be somepony with the power to do something that others can't. Something outstanding. Maybe something that isn't thought possible within the laws of the natural world? But magic makes everything possible. Maybe a god has a special kind of magic? This is a definition. It's a description of something we don't know enough about yet. I suppose we are, again, stuck without more information and that Naminé is, again, our next stop."

Twilight frowned and rubbed her chin. "It once bothered me that ponies never called Princess Celestia as 'queen', which she is in everything but title. When I asked her about it, she said it didn't matter, it was just a word."

"Discord did tell us that we could live our whole lives without this particular truth, and it wouldn't make a difference…"

"No!" Cadance shouted. "I must know what happened to Daffodil! I know that something awful happened and I don't know what real difference is it going to make if I know the truth, but she was important to me!"

They made silence after what Cadance said. She figured she could've been less emphatic. Maybe she was a little too tired and having some trouble dealing with her emotions.

"Hey…" Shining Armor called their attention. "Does anypony else think it is weird that the griffons were different? I mean… I may be jumping to conclusions, but I would like to know why is it that their mind developed in a different way."

"We don't know that they did. They may have developed earlier." Twilight said but frowned at herself. "Though that is not likely. The ponies were the ones that seemed to have brought the world to habitable state. To this day, we are the ones that deal with most stuff relating to nature."

Twilight wrote something on her notebook. "I wish we had more context on the griffons. We can't really know without more information."

"That defines our journey thus far, darling." The elegant pony stared with some annoyance, but then she grinned. "I for one, though, am very excited! We have discovered some particularly exciting things. I am fascinated to find out my friend is a dead goddess that was reborn!"

"Rarity, please…" Twilight growled at her.

"What?" She whined. "Didn't we just agree that there is no problem with the word itself?"

"I am not this…" She looked at her notes. "_Amicizia_. I simply share a piece of magic that used to be hers!"

"It's a soul, darling. Not simply any piece of magic such as the magic that animates twigs and sticks to make a timberwolf. It is the magical essence of life."

"Actually…" She glared at Rarity. "IT could be exactly the same kind of magic. It is magic that animates a body. You're romanticizing."

"You say it like it is normal…" Spike held his chuckling.

"It is normal!" Twilight yelled. "It is what happens when a pony dies and then another pony is born. Or concepted. Or whatever, I don't really know."

"Once again…" Rarity grinned. "We need more information."

Twilight looked like she wanted to say something to that, but instead she looked at her notes, another batch of her notes and frowned.

"Maybe this Harpy created the griffons." Applejack said in the meanwhile. "And she wanted them to be more independent, for some godly reason. I mean, griffons are tad aggressive sometimes, but they are definitively more independent than ponies."

Twilight nodded. "That could be right. Hum… The Harpy. Sounds like she was important to the griffons. Where is she right now? I mean… Supposing she created the griffons, why isn't she ruling the griffons the same way Princess Celestia is ruling the ponies?"

"Especially if the ponies somehow summoned the alicorns, right?" Starlight agreed. "Though I feel like we are assuming that Princess Celestia rules the ponies because of that."

Instants later Twilight gasped. "Princess Celestia is ruling the griffons… Who are exactly the race with which we had at least two wars. Princess Celestia went to a war with Emperor Grigor, who followed the Harpy. The two Griffon Wars were documented and were about hunting rights and secession. The war we didn't know happened is the one that involved the Harpy. The two Griffon wars also happened later. Did… Did Princess Celestia kill the Harpy? I mean, she killed Emperor Grigor."

"Well, the griffons wanted to be rid of Grigor." Applejack said. "It is within the reasonable that they also would want to be rid of this Harpy."

"Right. So, assume that Princess Celestia killed the Harpy in the same period she killed Emperor Grigor... No, that is not right. That is not the reason she destroyed our historical records. It was because the ponies did or had something bad about them."

"Maybe the Harpy in unrelated." Shining said. "And is something that related to Grigor and that the griffons wanted to be rid of. By what you told us, she was pretty bad. Maybe she is unrelated to the reason Princess Celestia did what she did. This is quite common during investigation… We find circumstantial things. I mean… The Princess helped the griffons and the griffons helped her get rid of information about whatever the problem Discord mentioned."

"Yes. That does make sense!"

She didn't even need to think for long and agreed with Shining Armor. She meant to go on further, but a pegasus called from the outside. "Airship hoay, astern high! It's the goldies!"

"All hooves on deck!" The Captain answered right away. "All hooves on deck, we got business!"

Twilight and friends rushed outside, including Cadance that didn't seem to be any tired anymore and joined the rush of pegasi running everyway. In the ship's aft, they joined the Captain and some of the crewponies, watching as a golden-hulled airship followed them from some distance.

"Ponyapples… They're gaining on us." The captain offered Twilight the spyglass, but Rainbow Dash took it.

"Awe-some! It's the Main Event, the new Wonderbolt airship!" Then she lowered the spyglass and stared off in the distance. "Crap. We're screwed."

Twilight took back the spyglass from her. It was indeed a Royal Guard airship. With a fast-looking golden hull that reminded her of her own airship, and fully furled sails, which meant it had all its magical engines at full-power, coming straight at them. It flew the Royal House's flag, which was a white background with shield with both Luna's and Celestia's cutie marks adorned with a long horn and a pair of wings. And also, a phoenix. Because why not? She couldn't really see that it was gaining on them, but she trusted her captain's pegasus eyes more than she trusted her own. Not to mention his experience.

She could also see that the thing had guns, something hers didn't.

"What do we do, Captain?" She asked the pegasus.

"We'll lose'em on the clouds, lass." He pointed a hoof at a cluster of clouds she hadn't seen before, being inside. "They'll give us enough cover for a change o' course to throw them off. Preferably under Luna's Moon. If that doesn't work, we'll have to fight."

"They look a bit far off, though." Pinkie looked at the clouds too.

"Suit up, girls…" Twilight said while the captain ordered his pegasi to recover the _Magic of Friendship_'s sails and she ship picked up speed with the roar of her magical engines. "We're not getting away too easily this time. At least we should have some time to prepare."

Discord woke up with his own snoring. He was laying in the snow and Lord Gilad was next to him, looking over to the distance. He was seated to the trunk of one of the trees and stared at the griffon, who seemed unconcerned next to the remains of the fire where they roasted the rabbit Gilad caught. He didn't see Gwineth, though.

"I didn't expect to actually sleep." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Where's Gwineth?"

"I do not know. She decided to go do whatever."

"Just like that?"

The griffon shrugged calmly. "It is one of the points of living in Snow Mountains. One is free to do whatever they might wish as long as it does not disturb others."

Apparently, she didn't deal very well with the frustration that her little attempt at manipulation didn't work. Or maybe she just wanted some space to herself. Curious, but it didn't matter.

"I don't mind her company." Gilad said. "But I do prefer to travel without her. She has an irritating tendency of acting as though her charms are irresistible to any of either gender and that her presence is a gift in itself."

Discord chuckled. It was a good description of her. He stretched his arms and yawned. "Is it too long until Griffindell?"

"If you can keep up, we should arrive by the morning." He stared at Discord, who felt a bit of a challenge behind those words. It did rile him up a bit.

"I'm used to teleporting around, but I supposed I could give it a try." He grinned and listened to the voice in the wind. "I am looking forward to meeting your mate. Gwineth made me think that she must be a very interesting individual."

"She has been said to be interesting, indeed. I did choose her to be my mate, after all." He said, gathering his sparse belongings and jumping up to fly again and Discord followed.

Celestia and Luna did their ritual of changing the day for the night without any fanfare, as Chrysalis imagined they usually did. Luna wasn't even present, and Celestia didn't do anything out of the ordinary. It was simply a spell she cast with that long horn of hers. The queen wondered for a second if Celestia actually understood the importance of that gesture to the rest of the world or if it was simply a chore to her.

There seemed to be so much going on inside that head of hers that Chrysalis wondered how she found patience to worry about petty crap like what they were doing…

She had procured two more spyglasses and made Chrysalis stand to one side of the ship's bow looking at the distance next to Bossy, while Celestia herself stood on the other side doing the same. All the while, the ship's actual lookout was doing his job of looking out.

Just why did she put her to that? Staring through a spyglass was menial work! If only she had found something and could claim to have 'won'…

Finally, Celestia let out a frustrated whine. "Nothing."

Chrysalis and Bossy stared at her. "The griffon airship should be here."

"Oh my… Outmaneuvered?" Chrysalis did her best to make her sarcasm sound playful. Celestia did seem to be frustrated and worried.

"It seems so. This is odd. I've been told it is a quite large airship." She sounded more confused than frustrated. "It shouldn't have moved so fast, even with modern magical engines."

Then Celestia frowned and looked away. Her horn shined and she started waving it around. She was probably feeling around for magical energies, but Chrysalis doubted that she could ever feel anything with the airships radiating so much magic around them.

"Princess." A griffon in a flashy red uniform approached them. She had a tricorn hat in her head. No way! She knew those stupid hats were common enough some time ago, but had fallen out of fashion, yet for some ungodly reason commanding officers in the navies liked using them.

"No way!" Chrysalis said. "Your admiral is a griffon?"

The griffon in question was an old cyan and gray female griffon with small round glasses, wearing a full uniform, complete with one of those annoying and noisy pistols and a rapier. Also, a snappy, petulant way of speaking. "Does that bother your majesty?"

"Yes. You are a griffon." Chrysalis said. "And griffons are the problem right now. I feel like you're an infiltrated agent."

"Hah. The day when a changeling accused another of being a spy has finally arrived. And accused an honorable griffon too. One that is exceedingly good in command." The griffon snaped back. "As her majesty would've attested to had she picked a side, rather than spending the entirety of the Second Griffon War hiding inside her home."

"How dare you?!" Chrysalis hoof found her chest. "That stupid war had nothing to do with the Swarm!"

"Chrysalis, meet Fleet Admiral Gloria." Celestia grinned at the two exchanging barbs. "Admiral Gloria, Queen Chrysalis."

The griffon completely ignored the queen after that, though. "Our scouts found nothing, Princess. It is as though the griffon airship evaporated. They might have known we were coming or changed their course to intercept Princess Twilight's airship at a specific location. They moved exceptionally fast though… I can't say I understand. Most of all in such clear skies."

"A team of unicorns, well-trained, could teleport an airship." Celestia mused more to herself. "But I don't think that Grigory has access to such a team as the only ones I know are in the Royal Guard."

The griffoness shrugged. "They might have figured out a way for the airship itself to teleport short distances."

Celestia's eyes squinted and she nodded grimly. "That is a possibility."

There was a soft bang and silver flash above the airship and they looked up to see Luna flapping her wings and letting herself fall to the deck next to them. And she looked quite angry.

"They shot at me, Celestia!" Chrysalis almost laughed at the way Luna was so angry she almost sounded like she was accusing Celestia of setting it up or something.

"Are you hurt, Luna?" Celestia hid well her amusement.

"No! But you're not going to like what I found." Luna huffed. "The museum had a hidden room, after the curator's office, with all sorts of artifacts related to you-know-what. It also had a giant statue of you-know-who."

"Is it in 'you-know-where'?" Chrysalis chuckled. "Open for visitation 'you-know-when'?"

"I can just leave, if you want..." Admiral Gloria rolled her eyes. "I don't really care. I simply came to report we didn't find anything, and I have a lot of work to do other than listening to stuff I have nothing to do with."

"I'm sorry, admiral. It is really nothing I think you need to concern yourself with. Please do mind your duties to the armada." Celestia said with her typical smile and the admiral left with a curt bow.

"I know she said she didn't care, but that was the nicest way I've ever heard to tell someone to go mind their own business…" Chrysalis said with a small amount of admiration.

"Well, I didn't mean it like that." Celestia said blankly. "You can speak now, Luna."

"The griffons had a giant statue of the Harpy!" Luna blurted out with big eyes. "A big onyx statue, complete with that creepy stance and big evil, judging eyes! It was new too! No way it was carved on Grigor's time!"

"I cannot believe this!" Celestia struck the floor angrily, but she did look around to see if anyone was listening. "How many times do I need to kill that thing?"

"Well, it shouldn't surprise us by now…" Luna grumbled.

"I don't like what I just heard! You said that thing didn't exist at the end of the war. That there was nothing inside the temple!" Chrysalis' shouted and Bossy cowered away a few steps. "And do you remember when I told you, thousands of years ago that you should have killed all of them? This is why!"

"Chrysalis, please calm down. Had I killed 'all of them' at that time, we would already be at war because the Lion wouldn't have reason to trust that I wouldn't do so again." Celestia asked calmly. "It's not something that we can't deal with. Please continue, Luna."

"When I arrived, they tried to dissuade me from entering, but I did anyways. They didn't like that at all. The curator shot at me with enchanted bullets and his cronies attacked my guards. There was a bit of a scuffle, and two of them were injured."

"Your guards or the griffons?" Celestia rose an eyebrow.

"My guards!" Luna ranted on. "The curator, his assistants and a few griffons that arrived to protect the place were all arrested, mostly unharmed."

Celestia frowned at that and Chrysalis spoke. "Did you just say that other griffons that had nothing to do with the situation went inside to help them protect the place? I'd bet my crown that they are all in this together, but I don't think that I have to. And I also don't have to tell you two how bad this is! They are clearly infiltrated in the griffon cities!"

"Indeed." Celestia agreed. "Good job in leading the apprehension of these bad griffons, Luna. "Did you speak to the curator, though? Did you manage to get him to talk without injuring him? Why does he have a statue of the Harpy?"

"No…" The night princess shuffled her hooves and let her ears fall. "I broke his paw and then stabbed the other to the floor."

"Damn, Luna!" Chrysalis laughed. "I wish I was there to see that!"

"We need to talk about your definition of 'mostly unharmed', Luna." Celestia glared at her.

"He shot at me!" Luna tap-danced nervously. "What was I supposed to do? I didn't know if that thing could actually hurt me!"

"Calm down, Luna. You did nothing wrong." Celestia held her shoulders with her wings. "And I would certainly side with you rather than a griffon shooting at my sister in any situation. I hope he understands in how much trouble that put him in."

"The local militia arrived and did assist us in arresting those griffons, but that also prevented me from speaking with the curator without raising suspicions." She went on. "He's been teleported to Griffonstone, but I left Night Gaunt to watch over him. The others are under the Thunderpeak militia's custody, and also have my night guards ensuring that no infiltrated griffon can interfere."

"Excellent job, Luna. As soon as we have dealt with Twilight and Cadance we will take some time to talk to the curator" Celestia smiled. "What of the museum?"

"It is full of artifacts from that time…."

Celestia sighed. "It seems I could've done a better job at getting rid of those things."

"Probably not your fault. The griffons must have slipped because you were thorough." Luna said. "It is closed now. I also left my guards to ensure that the militia does its job of keeping it out of bounds to anypony. But…"

Then Luna's ears fell… "Chrysalis, can you please leave us?"

To be completely honest, Chrysalis did expect that they would ask her to leave eventually, given all the secrets those two seemed to be juggling, so that didn't surprise her at all. What did surprise her was Celestia's answer to that.

"No. She should stay." At least Chrysalis could say that Luna was surprised too. "You should know, Chrysalis, that Luna had trouble dealing with Cadance's nightmares last night. Cadance likely has remembered a few things that we had tried to hide from her. If you care about her, you need to help us help her deal with those memories."

"Let me guess… Cadance is gonna go Nightmare Moon on us, isn't she?" Chrysalis frowned, not liking at all the way Celestia spoke. And she supposed that she did care for Cadance. And Shining Armor. And their kid. Mostly their kid. "And on top of that, he Cult of the Harpy is back, isn't it? Sometimes I wonder if you two aren't more trouble than you are worth."

"No." Celestia shook her head again. "We learned from our past and I hope we should be able to guide her through it. But it is enough that I have decided to end this whole game and rein in Cadance and Twilight. What worries me is that the Harpy indeed seems to have resurfaced and if she did, her followers are going to use that to turn Cadance and Twilight against me and my sister. We seem to be under attack already."

"Who or what is the Harpy, Celestia?" Chrysalis kept a natural expression, but her voice raised steadily with her growing scowl. "Back then you said she didn't exist, that it was all in the griffon's heads. That those insane maniacs that Grigor claimed were her chosen were actually his concubines and that you found nothing in the temple. For fuck's sake Celestia. Tell me that thing isn't real because I don't want to fight another Swordmaiden ever again in my life!"

"I plan on having a conversation with Twilight, Cadance, Prince Grigory and their friends and I want you to share it with us once we have them all under our care. It will help us understand more about this resurgence of the Harpy as I suspect the Lion is using her to garner support among the griffons. I will explain more at that time. For now, all you need to know is that the Harpy doesn't exist. The griffons believed in her and used her to justify their subjugation of other races and the superiority of their own race. You know. You were there, even if you kept your distance until the end. King Grover asked me to rid their history of the Harpy forever, along with Grigor and his empire, but it served as an excuse to do the same in the Equestria of the time."

"Is this griffon stuff related to what is happening to Cadance now? What about this mess of changed history?"

"Not directly. The Harpy as a part of the reason the griffons wanted their history erased. And what is happening to Cadance is not the reason I lied about our past. But it is related."

"Cut that out, Celestia." Chrysalis slapped her with a hoof and while Celestia seemed to not have believed Luna dropped to the floor and laughed. "You're not a good liar. The ponies just trust you because they're dumbasses. If you want my help, you need to be straight with me. I'm doing my best because I trust in you, so you better trust me! Especially after that conversation when we found Chocolate Velvet near Ponyville! Especially if those crazy griffons are coming back."

"Yes…" Celestia took a few seconds before she recovered herself, rubbing her cheek. "Yes, you are."

"The Ancient Pact." Celestia finally admitted. "The reason I wanted to erase history relates to the Ancient Pact. Only indirectly does it relate to the rest."

"Ancient Pact… How ominous. Let me take another guess… Did you do something you are ashamed of, or something that broke this pact? Whatever it is?" Chrysalis stared at her curiously. "Or was there something even worse… Something that your ponies had done that caused you to try and wash the whole mess away?"

"You already know, don't you?" Luna wasn't as surprised as she thought she'd be.

"I had my suspicions and I did my thinking lately. I am somewhat surprised that the ponies of the present haven't figured this out yet… I guess it's their propensity to trust you two way too much." Chrysalis frowned. "Why is it so bad? It doesn't seem to be."

"Because it's not what they did. It's the reason they did it. And it is not because it is shameful and repugnant… They breached the Ancient Pact and if the truth is known, it will open a wound that I managed to close. It is what summoned the Windigos, and then Discord, and it will summon the Black Sun. Even if the ponies of the present don't understand the Ancient Pact, it was etched into our souls."

"The Black Sun…" Chrysalis mused quietly and then nodded. "I certainly don't want that again. Was that what Discord was trying to do with the Lost Herd? Summon the Black Sun?"

Celestia nodded. "He didn't fully understand it, but he knew that something was wrong and that it was so bad that there was no other way around other than start it all over. That is what the Black Sun does… It stores information and returns time to the moment of creation, so that Harmony can try again, knowing what went wrong."

"But it didn't start over… Because of what you did?"

"The Windigos were supposed to have triggered the Black Sun, but the ponies managed to postpone it for a while through the Fire of Friendship, which is what it was supposed to do in the first place. It is a part of a magical system that is meant to make ponies cooperate and keep the world functioning as it is supposed to, but it is vulnerable because it is dependent on free-will. Which is the very thing that has the capacity to enable ponies to break it."

"It is possible that the Wendigos would've happened either way and we would have to figure out a way to deal with them." Luna added. "Ponies were forced to be nice."

"How stupid. I always hated free-will."

Luna wasn't amused and Celestia rolled her eyes. "Anyways… I restored the Ancient Pact, covering their mistake with a lie and that ended the process of the Black Sun, but if the truth comes out, ponies will realize what happened and it will be forfeit. So, I took advantage of my deal with King Grover and hid the whole thing so that my lie would never be found. I don't think that the griffons knew in the past or today, but if their side of the story is made known, then ponies will ask what I hid on our side of the deal I made with King Grover. They will figure it out eventually and the whole problem will start over."

"How do you fix a dying world lying about something?" Chrysalis looked like she was going to have a giant headache trying to figure that out. "And how in Tartarus could simply the truth becoming known ruin everything up again?"

Luna still didn't seem amused. "This is likely the most bizarre situation we've ever dealt with."

"Do you know what this thing is about?" Chrysalis turned to Luna, who shook her head 'no' and that made Chrysalis chuckle. "Then it's easy. We kill Celestia and bury the truth with her."

Luna did her best, but she just let her giggling escape and Celestia's lips made a smirk. "I'm glad you two can find humor in the situation. The problem, Chrysalis, is that the breach of the Ancient Pact begat distrust and the Pact cannot sustain itself without that trust. If the other creatures and ponies themselves cannot trust the ponies to do their part and not abuse their privilege as wardens of the world, then it will fail. As it almost did in the past."

"That actually makes a lot of sense." The queen nodded. "It is something so flimsy, so mundane and wavering as trust."

"It is a beautiful system…" Celestia added. "Star Swirl thought at one time that it was meant to be fragile and elegant, like friendship itself. He imagined that we, as a civilization came to landmarks where we were tested. And he may have been right. We may just not deserve to go on."

"Or…" Chrysalis stared hard at Celestia. "The thing actually worked, and ponies of the present have matured enough to understand that whole mess is done with and nothing needs to change today because of that. That things happened in the past because they did something wrong, and there was no other way and that your lie saved their flanks, so everything is fine now. Therefore, nobody needs to freak over ponies being bad in the past. It is what Discord believes. What Twilight has convinced him of. And why he decided to help them. How does that sound? Would that work?"

"Yes, that would work. But, are you willing to bet everything on that?" Celestia countered. "Are you prepared to bet your existence on that? Knowing Canterlotian nobility as you do?"

"You should be." Chrysalis shoved a hoof on her chest. "You're the one always going on and on about how everyone deserves another chance."

Luna seemed convinced. Too much for Celestia's taste.

"Maybe you are right, Chrysalis." Celestia admitted despite becoming rather angry, staring at one and the other. "But I am scared. I loathe my part in it, and I don't want to see the world end, consumed by a corrupted light-eating sun that devours everything when it is supposed to provide life. I am afraid we can't afford to play games with this. This is not the Crystal Empire or Nightmare Moon returning after a thousand years. And there is another problem. Even if things changed as you say, if the Cult of the Harpy really is back, they'll do everything in their power to undermine us and might use this whole mess just because they see it as an advantage. The myth of the Harpy has the power to destroy everything on top of this mess simply because it will completely upend any common sense the griffons have!"

"You are scared." Chrysalis waved a hoof dismissively. "Fine. Fine. This is the 'real deal'. I get it. Fine… That thing was scary anyways. I'll play along. What exactly do you need me to do?"

"Promise me you will not help Twilight and Cadance get away and reach Naminé. And Remember our conversation earlier. We are dealing with a very resourceful enemy, Chrysalis. They will use Cadance's situation against us, thus I also need for you to help us make Cadance understand the danger of what she is meddling with."

"Fine. Cross my heart, hope to fly…" She did so as she spoke. "I'm not sticking a cupcake in my eye. I guess, for now I'll stick to my changelings until it is time to act and wait for the right opportunity when you're having your talk with the kids. Do you want me to tell them anything in particular?"

Celestia's ears fell and so did her eyes. "Do you remember Shatterhoof Valley?"

"No!" Luna cried and stepped between the two. It was a bit funny since she was shorter than both, but her impetus made up for that. "Nuh-uh! No! We are most certainly not doing this! I will not allow you to desecrate your image like that, Celestia."

"This is not about me, Luna."

"She's right, Celestia. I don't understand it either. I thought that ponies going naughty was the problem to begin with. But even then, what happened in Shatterhoof Valley was a product of that time, and even then, a speck of dust in the sea of all the good that you did for Equestria. Not to mention that given the circumstances, not only that was forgivable, but those bastards had it coming. Finally, you overcame that and changed for the better. You learned… In fact, you got too nice to the point you wanted to protect the griffons from the others after the war with Grigor. Fuck! You're making me sound like yourself! You stopped that wave of insanity that was the Griffon Scourge, and then you rid the world of Grigor and his ilk! You both stopped King Sombra., and you reigned in all the little bastard assholes unicorns that thought themselves the owners of the world! I'm with Luna and I will not turn your image into the monster you think you were!"

Celestia wished the situation warranted a better mood from her, since Chrysalis had never left herself so open for some teasing. She shook her head low instead.

"My image will survive, Chrysalis. I have done much good in the world, enough that if my darkest moments come to light… I trust I will be judged fairly. They will, however, show the dangers of being a god among the mortals, and why I relinquished this view the ponies had of me. What good I did, I did in the worst way possible. I need you to show Twilight and Cadance what happens when one of us styles herself a goddess. For them to understand the danger of the Harpy and of old cult of the Alicorns. The danger of the ponies thinking themselves better than the other races because Harmony made us to maintain the world. They need to see that there is a dark side to that! We are the wardens of the world, not its owners. And we serve Harmony, not our whims."

Chrysalis mocked her with a smirk, but it changed to a serious frown. "What is this about, Celestia? Do you want Twilight to look at you and forgive you of your sins? Or do you feel naughty? I'm sure we can arrange something to 'punish' you with Chocolate Velvet and his white knight complex."

"Don't mock this, Chrysalis. Please."

"This is the last thing we need, Celestia!" Luna joined Chrysalis. "The Lion is going to use anything that you might have done against you to gain political leverage. And with this conversation of the Harpy coming back… If they manage to oust you, we will be at his mercy."

"They can't Luna. They won't. And this is how we defeat the Harpy. We show how imperfect we are, so that her perfection becomes as false as she is."

"Your mistakes fixed the world, you insufferable…" Luna grunted. "Get over yourself, Celestia! Guide her with a good example. Of all the good things that you did! The bad is very well hidden in the past too! Oh…"

"They will think that I hid our past because of the worship ponies gave to the Goddesses, and because of what that allowed me to do. They need to see that what I did had nothing to do with the ponies worshipping us! I don't know what is going through Cadance's mind right now, but it is not something good."

Luna didn't accept it but tapped the floor angrily, looking one way and the other, searching for a counterargument, but Chrysalis accepted Celestia's line of reasoning. Deep inside, she didn't want to see Cadance or Twilight hurt… She didn't want to see Celestia and Luna hurt anymore.

"But that! You! Argh! Fine!" Luna kicked the floor a bit too harshly. "But we will tell them of my part in that too. I caused Shatterhoof Valley more than you did!"

"That is fair, Luna,"

"Fine then. What do I do now?" Chrysalis asked.

"Actually, I have a job for you as soon as the battle with the griffon airship starts. You should meet with your commanders. I need to fly away for a while and find a way to track the griffon airship. Stay with her, Luna. Try to connect with her Praetorians, for the moment."

There was a thunderstorm outside. Heavy rain pelted the window and the retiring sun completely lost its sway over the day. Only the lightning shone every now and then.

It was strange, though. Ponies… Pegasi didn't usually add lightning to a storm unless there was some hermeneutical need for it only they understood. And even then, it was rare. Lightning and thunder scared the ponies. The artificial magical lighting worked though and that allowed the hospital staff to keep doing their work as the pony masonry protected them from the cold rain, but it was funny how some would still flinch at the flashes or the roar from the clouds and then grin uncomfortably.

And the pegasi claimed they owned the clouds and the lightning. It was enough to make an old griffon, educated in the true past of his race, laugh a biter laugh that most didn't understand.

Deep inside, deeper than all the memories of their lives, all the intrinsic needs and wishes, they still remembered the primal fear that haunted their ancestors.

He remembered it too, deep inside, when their ancestors used to fly from the mountains to the verdant prairies to hunt. The Mother of Storms called them out from their caves to rejoice and sing with the thunder while the ponies cowered one against the other in the grass.

It was pointless. They would run, and they would cry. Panic in all directions or follow one that claimed to be strongest only to find that whoever it was couldn't protect them from the sharp claws that flashed like the lightning, and when his kind flew from the mountains, there would be blood spilled on the grass.

Gabriel woke suddenly, but calmly when the thunder rattled the window of his room. Memories came back to him of being taken to Griffonstone because there was a surgeon there that could save his paws. That is, more than healing potions could. Griffon paws were delicate and complex things, and even the best zebra potion often failed to restore them to full functionality. Therefore, a skilled surgeon was necessary.

He frowned to himself. If only those idiots had the sense to take him to Snow Mountains, to the ancestor home of his race, then its magic would heal him more properly than any pony-trained griffon doctor could. If the doctor was even a griffon.

He was reclined on a bed next to the window and there was small pot with a simple white flower on it. His paws were bandaged, and he didn't feel a thing. In fact, his head was distant, and everything felt dull. Sons of a mule, they drugged him. They were so scared of pain they couldn't even entertain the notion that another would endure it rather than cloud his wits with poison.

"Meek, weak-minded degenerates…" He complained to himself in his most contained voice.

Someone next to him cleared their throat and he could already image a dumb-eyed pony staring at him. When he lifted his eyes, he saw he was right. It was a rosy-colored earth-pony mare with a little nurse hat, the cutesy stuff those grasseaters loved. Her mane was bunched up with a net and for some reason that made him even angrier. Her dove-y light green eyes seemed concerned, though.

"Good evening, Master Gabriel." She said all concerned and caring. "Are you feeling well?"

"No." He tried to sound angry but apparently his voice didn't work very well because of whatever they had given him. "I feel like you've drugged me."

"It's mostly the anesthetic spells and one or two medications for the nausea and the pain." She explained helpfully. "They should wear off in not too long. The important thing is that your paws should be fine in a few months. Doctor Scalpel will come see you before dinner. What would you like?"

"Roasted elk." He said more to aggravate her. He didn't feel like eating anything, but suddenly he remembered very important things. "I need to see my daughter. She is in Haybale."

"I'll see about your daughter, sir. But I don't think that you should eat anything too strong for now. If it is alright, I'll ask for some grilled tuna and potatoes… It is our kitchen's traditional griffon dish!"

"Whatever." He grumbled again.

"Hum… I'm aware you are in trouble with the law, involving the Thunderpeak local militia and Princess Luna. But for now, you should rest and not worry about a thing. While you are in our care, they can't disturb you."

Did that grass-breath just pity him? He didn't need his paws to tear into her heart!

But his body refused to let him stand. He simply sighed and let himself rest on the bed while the pony stared and blinked at him. Such defeat at the end of his years. He still could see the statue's stare down at him.

Then the pony grinned and chirped all happy. "I'll be right back!"

At least she left him alone.

He meant to remain awake and alert, staring at the door once it closed, but his body refused and fell into slumber.

He woke when someone spoke to him and started fussing about something around his bed, but he couldn't focus and lost consciousness until he finally woke again, and could see a gorgeous young griffoness with a pristine tan fur and white-magenta feathers. Fiery golden eyes that showed she didn't like at all her present task of cleaning his wounded left paw.

"Almost done, grandpa." She said with a feminine raspy voice.

His eyes focused on her and he lost his breath. Every hair in her body a pureblooded Child of the Harpy. Even if her color was uncommon in the Snow Mountains, she had the poise and the same fiery heart. Not a drop of pony blood in her.

"And stop staring like that. It's freaking creepy."

He did shift his eyes, if only because of how much that sounded as a veiled threat. After a while, he looked at her again, focused on his paws.

"Do you hear the Storm?" He asked her casually.

"Yeah…" She answered mindlessly while working to remove the dressing from the other wound. "It's raining buckets outside."

A shame… Not the correct answer. He had figured there was a chance of fifty-fifty in Griffonstone that she was one of them and that the Harpy would send someone like her to look after him. Alas, the Harpy may have indeed abandoned him for his failure. He sighed again.

"So, ponies tell me you're under arrest and not to talk too much with you." She told him, pulling the dressage around his paw. "What did an old dude like you do? Blew a raspberry at someone?"

"You are going to talk to me despite being told not to?"

She shrugged. "I wouldn't be stuck with community service if I was good at following pony rules, now would I?"

She certainly had the heart, he laughed and grinned. "I shot Princess Luna."

She stopped and stared at him, then she laughed heartily. "Dude! For real?"

"With a five-chambered griffon-made high-caliber revolver. Enchanted bullets too, straight from the Stormvalley Armory. Didn't work as I imagined, though." Telling her that made him smile and she laughed at it but still stared at his paws.

"Did she do this to you?"

He hummed and nodded. "Crushed my gun paw with a swing of a polearm and stabbed the other to the floor with a dagger."

"Damn." She grimaced. "I guess I would be pissed too if someone shot at me."

"What about you?" He turned the conversation on her. "Why are you here? Somehow I don't think you are enjoying what you're doing."

"Ugh… I punched a jerk that tried to steal two Bits from me and ended up breaking his beak. It was a damn minor and the judge said I had to do community service or spend time in jail, and no fucking way I would be spending time in a damn jail. I was down for cloud duty with the pegasi, but that was taken, so I ended up taking care of patients in the hospital." She held her face with sheer frustration. "Even had to attend to a class about how to do this crap."

"It is such a pony thing to punish others for defending what is theirs." He frowned. "If it is worth anything to you, know that I would have done the same."

"Yeah. Thanks grandpa. It's not that bad. Most ponies are annoying, whining all the time that their everything is hurting, but it is easy enough. You at least sound like you're cool." She shrugged. "And, at least I get to sell some scones in the morning before my shift. Couldn't do that if I was in jail."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm stuck here the whole afternoon. I tried leaving the stand unattended, but they took the scones and didn't leave the money, just a note telling me I'm a sucker. Of course." She growled and raised her closed paws like she was about to break something out of anger. "The problem is that griffons are jerks!"

The naivety, another pony thing. Instead of talking, he let her pour it out. "I mean… I did those things just as a hobby, but the damn Chancellor had all the southern holds drop the basic income because of the war effort, and now I barely make it month to month with the scones. I just hope I can last until the damn ponies in Canterlot get off their lazy flanks and fix this mess. There shouldn't even be a war effort, but the damn princess must be too busy with some pony crap to notice that her feathering subjects aren't getting their rights! I pay taxes every time I buy scone ingredients!

"I pay damn taxes every time I pay for anything! I probably pay taxes when I pay taxes!" She roared. "And now, on top of it all, the damn mayor decided that all commerce needs to stop by nightfall because something, something war, something."

Poor youngling. Lost in the politics she doesn't understand enough to take a stance. And that was no way for a Child of the Harpy to live, Gabriel shook his head at her words while she composed herself with a deep grunt. That poor kitty needed some guidance from real griffons.

"Your problem is not that griffons are 'jerks' either, kitty. Your problem is that you are living with the wrong griffons."

She deadpanned at him. "Did you just call me kitty?"

"I mean no offense. What is your name, then?"

"Gilda." She growled unfriendly at him.

"Your problem, Gilda, is that your race has been living under subjugation from an old enemy for so long you don't even remember that you are a prisoner anymore or even what it feels like to be free."

"Yeah, sorry. I'm not interested in your griffon pride spiel. I got more important things that I need to take care just to stay out of trouble." She showed him the most disinterested expression a griffon could ever make. "I know this stuff, and it's wrong. I have pony friends, dude. It's not the ponies, it's some weirdos that want to feel special about themselves."

"Listen to yourself, Gilda." He wasn't impressed. "You have no means of self-support other than what money the government pays you. This is a pony thing. They are the ones that implemented the universal basic income, but now that things aren't going the way they wanted, they took it away. The Princess, quite literally, pays griffons to behave."

"This is not right!" She contained her agitation. "It's the Griffon Chancellor that messed things up. He's the one that ordered the territories to stop it and retained the money for the war effort."

"But this is part of the problem: The Chancellor doesn't rule for us. He rules for Celestia. And do you see why he did it?" She frowned and her eyes showed confusion. "Because he is doing Celestia's bidding. They want the one that is fit to rule the griffons, for the griffons, gone."

"The Chancellor needs the money to pay for his soldiers?"

He laughed. "No, kitty. He needs you. Your brothers and sisters. He did it so that the griffons that embraced Celestia's ideals will starve until they join his army. You'll notice that everything Celestia has done to us will work perfectly as long as you are compliant. As long as you violate your true nature and remain docile."

"My true nature?"

"Have you ever seen a griffon using their claws to do a job the ponies have given them?"

She didn't answer. Instead her eyes found the floor and her proud stance deflated. His words took root and the Child of the Harpy stirred inside its cage. It was a beautiful thing to see, when they opened their eyes for the first time and saw the Matriarch of the Great Herd for the oppressor she was.

Now, to spread her wings and watch her soar.

His eyes narrowed and he spoke in a low voice. "There is a city, far in the north. Where griffon lands meet the Frozen North. Holy Griffindel, in the Valley of Griffons. Most ancient of griffon cities, it was built before the Windigos were unleashed upon us, and she housed the mightiest Lords of the Sky, before the pegasi, before the sun and the moon."

She listened quietly. "It is the birthplace of our race, full of history. Full of pride. It is a journey every griffon should make at least once. Beware though… Most that go do not return because they find their true selves, staring at her black gates where the Conqueror fell before the Dawnbringer."

"Who is the Conqueror?" She frowned at him. "What is with talking like that?"

"You'll learn in time. In there resides your future king. Lord Gilad Ironfeathers."

"The Lion?"

"And his mate. The most important griffon to ever exist. Lady Gwendolen. The most beautiful, the wisest. Listen and open your heart to her. It will change your life forever."

She shook her head. "That is the most inhospitable place in the world. How am I supposed to go there when I can barely pay my bills?"

"If you want change, you must change. Ask yourself… Are you happy with your life? Life-changing decisions are difficult and require much. You may have to throw yourself at an abyss and believe that there is one who will hold you. I have done the same. And She caught me in my darkest hour."

She didn't answer, but he knew that stare.

"Meet my daughter, Gerdie, in Haybale. She may have left already, but you were made to thrive in the adversity. When you do find her tell her that I sent you. She will ask you my name, and it is Gabriel. She will then ask you if you can hear the storm. You must answer, exactly, 'I can hear Her cry'."

Gilda nodded, but still seemed uncertain. The seed was there, though.

That moment a thestral pony, one of Luna's guards wearing their blue silver armor walked into the room holding a sandwich in his mouth, which he dropped, so surprised he was. "Hey, this guy is under arrest. You're not supposed to be talking to him!"

Gilda just stared at the bat-pony. "Sorry, girl. You gotta go if your job is done."

Gabriel smiled to himself. He saw the change in her posture at the pony giving her orders. Yes. This one was set on her path.

"I'm going." She said and gathered the small tray with what remained of the cleaning supplies. She squinted her eyes at the pony on her way out.

Finally, the thestral closed the door and glared at Gabriel. "What the hay is wrong with you guys and following orders?"

He grinned. Tired from the medication, but still grinned at the fanged pony. "Our Mother never taught us to serve the meek."

The pony didn't seem impressed. "Yeah. Sure… My mother taught me to be nice. I'll be outside. Just call if you need anything."

"Just… Don't make any trouble, alright?" The thestral finished, walking out the door. "Let's make this easy on both of us and don't make me lose my vacation next week. Then I won't bother you."

Nightfall didn't distract Twilight, her friends or her airship's crew. Since the moment they first saw the golden airship pursuing them they have prepared for the inevitable fight. At least Cadance got some rest, finally, during the day.

She had hoped that sleep would somehow allow her access to the Palace of the Self, but it didn't. There wasn't much to do about that, so after donning her barding and making sure Flurry Heart was fine with Miss Calcite, she felt ready to join the others.

Walking outside to the deck she saw the pegasus crewponies dutifully working on their positions, caring for the airship and keeping watch in the night sky. The moon provided good illumination and there were few clouds in the sky other than the cluster they headed towards.

Shining Armor also wore his purple and golden barding and carried his sword and shield on his back. He didn't see her, but she smiled at him. Such a great image of what a knight should be. He talked sternly to the Captain, who seemed very focused, just like Rainbow Dash and Applejack next to them. All wearing their barding and the Element of Harmony jewels. Cadance just couldn't wait to see Applejack using that war hammer on her back! But for the time, it seemed like it would be best to leave them to whatever they were discussing.

Twilight's guards looked over her from afar while she was with one of the pegasus by the stern of the ship. Cadance walked there, nodding at her guards on her way. For some reason it frustrated her that she knew Twilight preferred boys, but all her guards were female. Not only that, but she huffed to herself that they should have bowed at her.

Well… She only had two of them. And wasn't even properly stern with them… What could she have expected?

She stopped and blinked. What the hay was she thinking? They're about to go into a battle!

She pressed her step towards the back to reach Twilight and the pegasus. Squinting a little next to Twilight, she looked for the pursuing airship. It seemed somewhat closer. She wasn't that good at judging great distances though. The pegasus crewpony next to them was a deep blue in his coat with a pair of crossed rapiers for cutie mark and had a strapping short-cut red-brown mane to go with his brown eyes. The best was the red bandana, though. He had the spyglass and he didn't look happy, grumbling under his breath.

"Buckin' goldies don't give up." He blinked twice, staring at Twilight and at Cadance. "Er. Sorry Princess."

Cadance rose an eyebrow and the smaller one only giggled. "Don't worry. I don't mind ponies swearing next to me."

The robes on her barding flapped a little in the wind, with her mane while she watched the other airship, now with the spyglass. Somehow, she seemed even prettier in the night and the pegasus seemed to agree because he coughed into his hoof after staring at her for a while. Actually, Cadance could swear she heard him begging for Twilight's attention. "Princess, shouldn't ye be inside?"

He seemed genuinely worried, but Twiilght lowered the thing with a determined stare. "We'll fight them too. Rainbow said that is the new Wonderbolt airship… We're gonna need all hooves on deck and you guys need to keep the airship flying at her best."

Twilight then blinked and grinned, a little ashamed. "Uh… I've only ever read about airship combat. What is going to happen?"

"They'll shoot ballistas at us, m'lady. Large harpoons with reinforced ropes strapped to their hull. Then they'll reverse their engines and slow us down. Finally, they'll attack with pegasi and shoot at us from their ship and put'em side 'a side and jump aboard with all their ponies. Try 'n take control o' the airship. If we piss'em off 'nough they'll fire broadside at us to damage and ground us."

Other than refraining an impulse to correct the pony that the correct term was 'ballistae', Cadance simply watched the two interact.

"That sounds dangerous." Twilight sounded so worried it was cute.

The pegasus stuffed his chest though. Twilight didn't see it, but Cadance giggled quietly. "Airshippin' life be dangerous, princess."

"I'll bet!" Twilight chirped. "Did you guys really fight the Royal Guard before?"

"Aye. Off the Coast of Sharp Edges." He flared his wings, all excited, but Rainbow Dash, with Shning, Applejack and the Captain called Twilight to see something off the starboard railing.

"We have to talk about that sometime later!" Twilight grinned. "Sounds like a great story!"

And with that she went to Rainbow Dash. Remaining for a second Cadance saw the poor pegasus deflate and let his wings sag before he realized she was watching and pretended to go back to watching the Wonderbolt airship. Cadance grinned like Discord would be proud.

"I've read countless tales of Royal Guards and soldiers having affairs with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. It feels like the time is ripe for a new one about the youngest princess and one of her airship ex-pirate crewponies."

He coughed and tried to not look so ashamed of himself. "Please don't tell the Princess? I don't want her kicking me off he airship or something."

"Heh… I wish my Royal Guards would be more excited with me than they are with Shining Armor." She mumbled, but then she grinned at him. "Would you like a date with Princess Twilight? A real date?"

"I don't know…" He recoiled and his ears dropped. "It sounds inappropriate."

She lowered and approached him, uncomfortably close, with an even more uncomfortable grin. "Silly pony. I would be the one that says what is inappropriate in these regards. Or have you ever heard anypony telling Princess Celestia that the sun is raising to early or too late?"

His eyes shifted from one side to the other and he mumbled something until Cadance frowned. "Ponies of the present are so boring. I bet that in the earlier centuries of Princess Celestia's rule anypony would jump at the golden opportunity that I offered you."

Then Twilight called her from the railings, waving a hoof at her. "Cadance! Come over here to see this!"

"Think about that. Mister Dangerous Airshippin' Life."

Satisfied, Cadance sauntered over to Twilight and the others without a glance backwards. They stared at something in the dark of the night that just flashed white. "Is that a storm?"

"Thunderstorm." The Captain said. "Nasty one."

"Hum… Which city has jurisdiction on this area?" Twilight looked back at the others.

"I looked at the map and it would still be Haybale." Shining said. "A bit too far and not a pegasus in sight."

"That thing ain't normal!" Applejack squinted at it. "It looks all weird. Not at all with the ones we get over the farm."

"It's because it's not normal." Rainbow said. "It's too dense and I don't see why they needed one here. Maybe over the fields, but this is too far and there is no way the weather team would let it drift that far. I also don't know why it has that much lightning."

"Is it going to be a problem?" Cadance asked.

"It can shut down our magical engines." Twilight said but looked at the Captain for confirmation and he nodded. "Maybe we can use it to our advantage?"

The Captain shook his head. "Neigh. There be no way a professional crew 'd get trapped in one of these monsters."

"Oh… Did they make it them?" Twilight looked at Rainbow.

"Nah. A storm that dense and that big… You'd need Cloudsdale close by."

"Let's just steer clear of that thing, then." Twilight concluded. "What about the cluster of clouds?"

"We'll reach' em right in time for dawn. With luck and some clever maneuvering, we can throw off our pursuers 'till their scouts find us again. Might buy us some time to get'way."

Shining nodded with a hoof on his chin. Frowned a little. "Captain keep a pair of eyes on that thing. I don't like it."

"Aye."


	21. Planning to Fail

It was difficult knowing for sure, considering how long they remained completely closed within the airship and the artificial lighting messed with him. It was so different from the typical 'pony stuff' he had grown used to in the last months. Of course, being stuck inside a cell didn't help either, but he had a rough idea that it was before morning and too soon to be up, even for one used to waking up with Celestia every day.

However, as he supposed the airship prepared for combat, their boss decided to move him to another cell. Maybe one closer to wherever they would drag him out to make the exchange Grigory planned with Twilight. He just hoped that the Princess wouldn't be so stupid.

Nah. Who was he kidding? Twilight being stupid? It would be easier for her to turn his plan on his head. It simply upset him that they took away his armor.

For the moment he simply followed the griffon in black and golden armor around the narrow and dimly lit corridors. At least the weird magic that thing's engines radiated didn't bother him with the inhibitor hornring on.

"Watch your step, pony." The griffon tried to sound intimidating, but he was a bit too young and came of more as childish with his not yet fully developed voice. "I don't want to be responsible if you break a leg or something. I hope you get used to wearing the hornring though. You and your princesses will be using them all the time once we get them removed from the throne."

He concluded with a chuckle before he went on. "Though it will probably be worse when we put you in the pens, like the cows."

Chocolate simply uh-hu'd mindlessly as the guy prattled on and they entered the gun deck through a crew access door. It was a rather spacious room that spanned the entirety of the gun deck and the whole width of the airship. Large cannons lined both sides behind armored shutters to the outside.

It was barely lit for reasons that escaped the alicorn and it smelled of griffon because those damned confused birds who thought they were flying cats exuded a characteristic aroma that in the past hours started to profoundly aggravate him! Or maybe Celestia's dislike of the griffons finally started ingraining itself on him and they simply smelled different from the ponies.

But since he was there he decided he should pay attention and try and learn something rather than indulging in righteous fury at the mission being more annoying than it warranted.

Indeed, the gun deck was lined with cannons. Not the typical muzzle loaders the entire world used, but the griffons had come up with breech-loading design to arm their big airship. The whole thing seemed like a bizarre combination between a flying submarine and an ironclad of sorts. Griffons carted around cloth cylinders he supposed were full of gunpowder and also shaped shells. If not for magic, they would be decades ahead of the ponies and their crystal ball ammunition for naval guns.

Anyways, they brought both materials from the deck below and stored it all in the center of the gun deck where there were adequate shelves and niches.

Another thing that drew his attention, more than the rest was that an officer and a soldier caused a scene, discussing in the middle of the organized chaos. They didn't notice that the griffons tending to the guns and ammunition discreetly paid attention to their tempestuous exchange and the dumbass escorting Velvet didn't notice his slowing gait to listen in.

It was difficult to see the details in the dim light, but one was definitively a grunt, with the typical black and gold armor of Griffindell and the other wore an elaborate, dark steel and silver armor with a blue and white cape. The first's shrill voice sounded weird and his armor clashed with his bright green coat and tan feathers. The other was less aggressive on the eyes, with shades of metallic gray and a graver voice.

Green one was frustrated and seemed to have called the other 'Gon'. Then he went on what sounded like a long-winded and frustrated explanation of something. Chocolate wondered if he was a staff sergeant or something of the sort trying to explain something to a superior officer who refused to see common sense.

Taking the word, the officer spoke worryingly and looked around at the soldiers but failed to see the big brown alicorn listening in the middle of the mess. Then said something else, but his voice denoted sorrow.

The first seemed to angrily accuse the officer of something and that hurt him. He defended himself with quite a few words. Chocolate was sure he heard the name 'Grinolf', also something that sounded like 'Grigory' and 'Wonderbolts' as he tried to explain or justify something. He concluded mentioning the Wonderbolts again and seemed to plead.

The other was frustrated though. He sat and gesticulated widely and angrily. Chocolate was sure he heard the name Griffindell, but their pronunciation was weird. As tough the real name wasn't Griffindell as he knew it, but the word was close enough when ponies spoke, and it stuck for the outsiders.

The officer was shocked at what his subordinate said, and his feathers almost jumped out of his head on a surprised reply where Lady Gwendolen's name appeared. Then he made soothing gestures and said something else.

Green one answered furiously and pushed the officer's chest. Chocolate hadn't ever seen ponies do that to an officer and that would get them expelled from the Royal Guard, save for intervention from the Princesses. He couldn't imagine a griffon officer would be more lenient if they weren't friends, or something.

The officer though shook his head and said something in his defense, to which the first pointed a finger and accused him of something, and that finally got the officer angry.

He pointed a finger himself and unleashed a long tirade where he mentioned Lady Gwendolen's name again, then the Wonderbolts and Grigory too. Then he made an angry gesture with words that ended the conversation.

He raised his voice more than he intended, but the soldiers all around pretended not to have heard anything. Yet both looked at Chocolate Velvet this time, and both seemed to become flustered about it, but the green one Chocolate supposed was Grinolf looked more ashamed than anything else.

It took his escort little time to figure out Chocolate Velvet had left him talking alone though. "Hey, pony! What do you think you're doing?"

He poked at Chocolate's chest with his musket. "I'll bet you've never seen anything like the gun deck on the Skoll, but this isn't a sightseeing trip. Get moving."

And so, he did. But kept what he saw on the back of his mind. At the least, it would be something to tell Celestia and Luna. It was such a shame he didn't understand their language. It was the changeling language he studied, but maybe he should branch out.

Twilight and her friends slept through the rest of the night and waking up right before dawn she worried because the crew of the _Magic of Friendship_ hadn't. She hoped that the shifts they had implemented were effective. But then again, she knew little about 'airshipping life' and that was the reason she hired a professional crew. Also, she couldn't say that she was that well rested: sleeping with her barding on was hardly the most comfortable thing she'd ever done. But she managed to rebuild her energies for the coming battle. Fortunately, taking a gander at her friends as they too woke up, they seemed to have rested. A quick breakfast was perfect.

Going outside, greeted by the sun as in an ominous foreshadowing, her airship's crew seemed to be just fine. Maybe she worried too much.

The Captain met her right outside the door to the private room. "Morning lass! Ship's ready to rumble! She's got no guns, she's got no armor, but she's got one dedicated crew! We even built a protection 'round the wheel!"

She giggled at his surprising enthusiasm. "Great! At least they won't be able to say we didn't try our best!"

Taking a second to look around the deck, she located the clouds they were supposed to reach just before dawn. It had come and they still hadn't reached the clouds. "Huh. How is our plan going?"

Not exactly as it should, apparently, but close enough, she supposed. The point was to use the clouds to block their vision in the lower visibility and maybe throw them off course, but the clouds seemed to have drifted. The thunderstorm was still there, though. She could swear that thing followed them. Though it also made sense that it would drift in the same direction as the clouds.

He shrugged and pointed at the clouds with a wing. "Not much we can do, lass. Either it works an' earns us some extra time, maybe let us escape, or it doesn't, an' we have to fight'em… I'd rather we had reached'em already, but it can't be helped now."

"I see…" She nodded pensively. "I'll make sure the girls and Shinny are ready to fight."

"I asked some of the lads to bring up our gun racks… We got some loaded muskets, enchanted crystal balls, o' course, an' some stun batons. I asked'em not to use swords an' the lads be concerned they'll be too easy a target. But I'd imagine they'd be more effective than with real weapons. I figured that now we'll be fighting real soldiers things could get hairy if we don't reign'em in." He said plainly. "I'm afraid we're short on options an' all we can do is deal with them as best as we can, but I'd rather we not provoke the Wonderbolts by injuring'em."

"I suppose." She sighed. "What can we do to help? I am sure that the girls and Shinny can hold our ground, but this is my first fight in an airship ever."

"Just make sure they don't grab ya, lass. They be Wonderbolts. They'll board us an' force us to hoof-to-hoof. It's gonna get hairy. Ye got a horn. Use it however you can an' leave the shooting an' maneuvering t'us. Till then, I'll be at the helm. Should get yourself tied to the main mast, lass. Fighting in these airships be like a storm at sea. She'll throw ya 'round, unless they force us to'stop. I rather avoid that."

She nodded and he walked off, replaced by one of the pegasus crewponies with a rope for her. It was the one she talked to last night. The one that was going to tell her about their life as pirates before working for her. "'Scuse me, princess. I'll tie this thing for ya."

Cadance approached them while she sat and the pegasus passed the rope around her chest and shoulders like a harness. Cadance didn't seem to like the rope very much, and she stared in a weird way that Twilight didn't fully understand. She was so weird after that dream of hers, but Twilight did understand when she voiced her complaint. "Is this really necessary? I should be able to fly, and we'll end up tangled in one another."

"Better than getting yer wings caught in the wind an' getting dragged out the airship when she maneuvers, princess." He explained while he worked. "We'll be turning an' banking in speed to evade'em. You'd have to catch up to the ship if the wind tosses you out, then you're easy picking for'em Wonderbolts."

Cadance examined her own improvised rope harness. "I guess so, then… But… How don't you get tangled?"

"Ya gotta be mindful of yer place in the airship, princess. Shouldn't be a problem though, cause the ship is gonna be flying fast an' we won't be fighting, unless they catch us. If they do, they'll have us hooked an' their ship is gonna stop ours. Then we'll cut the ropes and fight. Till then, best keep to yer place."

Cadance blinked. "But their ship isn't that much faster."

The pegasus shook his head. "Engines that go faster aren't necessarily stronger Princess. Those'll usually be slower, but more powerful. An' any ship that's got ballistas nowadays ought ta have a separate engine just to pull with those things. Assuming that's the Wonderbolt's strategy. It's what the Guards do. An' Wonderbolts be Guards."

Cadance frowned and made a funny face. "Guess we should run, then. So, fighting in an airship is like being in a storm at sea, without the fighting."

"Aye." He nodded.

"Sounds like we either shouldn't be fighting, or we shouldn't be flying." Twilight giggled.

"Pretty much, Princess. 'Scuse me… I got stuff to do."

He nodded a small reverence and turned to leave while Twilight lightly tested the rope with her hooves, but she noticed that Cadance snapped her head toward the pegasus walking away with her ears perked up.

"Did he just say something?" She asked, confused.

Having heard nothing and distracted by the curious knots the pony had used, Twilight simply stared calmly at her. "Hmm?"

Cadance frowned. "Never mind. I think I'm just on edge."

Finally, she smiled at Twilight after he had distanced himself and she was sure he was out of earshot. "You're very popular with your airship's crewponies, aren't' you?"

"I guess I'm good at making friends." She chuckled and Cadance gave her a sarcastic laugh.

"I wish that my guards would be excited about me, like yours are or Luna's and Celestia's, but I swear they are more excited about Captain Armor than about me." She tried not to show it, but Twilight saw her drooping ears. Then she waved a hoof with a sigh. "I suppose I ask too much of them. I used to think that we were the reason they joined the Guards. You know… Protecting the Princesses. Doing their bidding."

Twilight turned to her and stared at her to get her full attention. "I'm a bit worried about you, Cadance. You've been talking in a way that makes me think you're not happy, you know, being who you are."

She recoiled a bit, raising a hoof at the recollections of her past discussions with Cadance. "Not that I think that you are necessarily wrong… I mean, with the things we've found there may be some space for adjustments… But…"

"Don't worry, Twilight. It's okay. I just feel a bit lost. I can't help feeling like there is something that was stolen from me. And at the center of it all are Celestia and Luna. And this secret of theirs. About us. Why don't you feel the same?"

She did. It's just that… "I get the feeling that this idea of goddesses is a wrong interpretation. We keep talking about this thing about our creation and of being gods as though we understood it. Discord told us to be aware of these impressions. If I started acting like I own ponies and their 'friendship' or something… I fear I would become like Discord did in your dream vision. Throughout my life Princess Celestia taught me that my being a powerful unicorn didn't put me in a position of being served, but it put me in a position of serving others. Because I could do things they couldn't, I should do it for them, and they would repay by doing for me things that I can't. Not like we would owe each other, but rather… We'd enjoy helping each other and revel at being able to help. Am I making sense?"

Cadance listened quietly to her so Twilight pushed further. "It was the lesson I got from the story of Nightmare Moon. Princess Luna acted as though she owned the night and that ponies owed her something for it and for protecting their dreams. It almost cost her everything."

Cadance nodded at that, but she didn't seem too convinced. Maybe it was a good idea to stop for a while, sort out their thoughts and talk about what they felt before going on. Maybe without the others. The timing couldn't be worse, though, with the Wonderbolts hunting them. Perhaps it would be a good idea to get caught and let Princesses Celestia and Luna do some explaining. That whole thing seemed to be getting out of control.

The problem was… Could she even trust them?

So, she changed the subject with a soft murmur and thankfully Cadance didn't oppose. "We need a shield. Think you can envelop the airship in a shield?"

"Easy." Cadance shrugged. "But they'll shoot cannons on us, won't they? I guess I can hold for some time, but I'm not sure for how long. Won't the shield slow the airship down, though?"

"You would have to shape it correctly. Hardly an issue for you." Twilight shrugged too, but Cadance had other thoughts.

"Maybe we should go on the offensive."

"Just… Attack them?" Twilight blinked at her.

"We're not good at airship combat, Twi. But I bet that you and I could rip their ship apart if we tried."

Twilight had to agree with her. If they wanted, they could. It might take a while, but they would be able to defeat whatever spells enchanted their hull and rip it apart. The problem was doing that while they were shooting at them and at their friends. And there was also the problem that it was possible, and likely, that their ship had unicorns in its crew compliment. They had to have at least one unicorn onboard to work the magical systems. It just seemed like a bad idea all around, but it was best not to say it like that. "We have to be careful not to hurt them, though."

"They're pegasi… They can just keep flying." Cadance didn't seem very worried, or simply didn't think the same as Twilight. "I mean, if their airship wasn't so fast and we could simply escape… But in this situation, I think we should attack first. You and I."

"We should have discussed this with the others first." Twilight shook her head and let her ears fall. "If we do things we haven't planned for, we'll end up messing the whole thing for our friends."

The other seemed convinced. "Alright. But if things start to go wrong, that is a possibility."

Twilight nodded in agreement and not a second later one of the pegasi, one standing in the bow, watching the clouds they were moving into screamed and drew their attention.

"There's an airship in the clouds! It's an ambush! Captain! It's an ambush!" He pointed frantically at the clouds, and everything happened too fast. Twilight barely saw a large airship with a metallic hull peeking out of the largest cloud and the Captain yelled for everypony to hold on. Then her airship banked violently, and her engines sounded like angry monsters while she barely kept her balance, jumped and grabbed the railing with a panicked flurry of pony legs.

It was a sharp turn towards the left that avoided the collision. They came so close Twilight could see the rivets holding the metallic plates and the rust on their edges. She heard her friends screaming and for a second, she feared one of the wingless ones would drop overboard with how much the ship banked and vibrated. But fortunately, they had all tied themselves to the main mast as the crewmembers had told them and they also managed to hold on to whatever was close.

Shining held on to his rope slinging it around his leg and kept on his hooves despite it being tied like a harness around his shoulders. His horn shone and a curved white magical shield with his cutie mark manifested itself next to the airship right on time to glance off a ballista bolt the shot from one such weapon on the pursuing ship's bow. It seemed it could be swiveled in a turning table or something. Interesting, but fortunately they missed thanks to her brother.

"Good job Shinny!" She grinned and turned to see his angry and pained grimace.

"Those things are enchanted with armor piercing magic! They'll melt through the hull if they hit us!"

"Let's not get hit then!" The Captain shouted, turning the wheel like a roulette and caused the ship to bank even further, turning and turning to the left. Twilight managed to hold onto the railing of the right side and was sure that her weight and momentum would've hurt, but her barding's padding protected her. To her distress, she saw that the other ship not only could turn much faster, but also had cut the rope and let the bolt that failed to connect fall, which could only mean they were preparing to fire again. And it had two baslistae on its bow. She tried thinking of something to do, but nothing came to her head that wasn't holding on.

And that the diamond dog crew seemed very well adapted to the task with their bulky frames and opposing thumbs. Wait… Diamond dogs in an airship? What the hay?

Then the Captain shouted again. "Other side, Captain Armor!"

That was when she heard thunder.

That was her first thought. That she had just thunder, but the thunderstorm was too far. Then explosions ripped across Shining's shield in the air and she screamed at the scare with her friends. Magical energy rippled through and she finally realized that the wonderbolt airship had turned their broadside to them and left a trail of smoke. Worse, not only the magical wave gave her a headache, but her ship's magical engines made a weird noise that Twilight could only compare to coughing. Or sputtering.

"They actually shot cannons at us!" Cadance shrieked next to her, holding on to the railing next to Twilight.

"Get a hold of yourselves!" Shining shouted at them with his ears pulled down and a weary expression. "This is gonna get hairy! They're firing magic disruption balls at us!"

"They're trying to shut off our engines!" The Captain screamed over the airship's howling engines and the wind messing with her mane and her robes. "We gotta lose them now!"

"That's a thing?" Cadance gasped at her. Twilight supposed it made sense since Princess Celestia would never allow them to fire real ammunitions at them.

Then the engines 'coughed' again. Twilight actually felt it and knew exactly what happened. The Wonderbolt airship had a team of unicorns that was trying to interfere with their engines too! She didn't even know it was possible, but if lightning could do it, then she supposed trained unicorns could too. So, on top of firing rounds at them that would shut off their engines and give them a headache, they were casting spells on her airship. They really didn't want them to escape!

"They know exactly what they are doing! It all happened too fast. They must have a whole strategy planned out." She took a second to appreciate just how stupid her comment was. "Well… They are professionals."

The airship finally leveled out, putting the strange rusted metal airship astern, but Twilight also realized that the golden hulled Wonderbolt airship followed them on their turn and kept facing it with their broadside.

"We gotta do something!" Cadance called, finally on her four hooves again.

"We gotta escape is what we gotta do!" Shinning shouted back. "We only fight if they manage to stop us!"

"Can't you all shoot magic at them or something?" Applejack called back at Twilight, from the other side of the deck, holding to the railing with a leg and holding her hat with the other hoof.

Twilight blinked. Yes… They could! "Starlight! Help us! Try to hit the wonderbolt airship on their engines!"

"I'll try!" She shouted back and galloped as fast as she dared in the uncertain floor and over the ropes towards the railing, soon followed by Twilight and Cadance.

Shining though looked to one side to see the metallic, somewhat rusted airship and then at the other. "We gotta do something about that other ship!"

Twilight looked back at him. "The Wonderbolts are going to keep chasing us!"

Then she turned her attention back to the wonderbolt ship. It was far away. Too far for them to hit anything with magic and still cause some damage. Both Cadance and Starlight proved this fact when they shot magical beams and missiles at the airship and neither managed to hit or simply didn't have enough power to damage the magical components at a distance, after all, a military airship ought to have its magical engines protected.

Something hers didn't. The more she thought about the situation, the worst is seemed to get.

"At least we tried…" Cadance frowned next to her.

"Could've bought an airship with guns, couldn't you, Twi?" Rainbow leered at her from her other side.

"Actually, those are regulated. And way more expensive." She shot back. "So, no. I couldn't have bought an airship with guns!"

"You are a princess!" Rainbow insisted. "Possibly a goddess."

"Not now, Rainbow!" Twilight pulled her ears back to match her friend's.

"They're firing again!" A crewpony shouted over their arguing and Shining's shield manifested again with white light and his cutie mark, rippling with magical energy where the ball shots dispersed their magical effect into, but they still screamed at the noise and magical energy those things radiated.

He put a hoof on the side of his head once they were safe and he lowered his shield. "Damn…"

Suddenly the ship shook with a crunching noise. "What happened? Oh no!"

She looked back and sure enough, the metal airship that popped out of the clouds managed to hit their stern with both of their ballistae. Instants later the ropes tensed, and the airship rocked so hard it threw Twilight and the others around the deck. She was glad they had taken the time tie themselves to the main mast.

"Ooow…" She and Cadance whined with their backs to the railing.

If that wasn't enough, she could hear her airship's engines struggling and the coarse noise of the other airship's engines fighting against it.

"They've caught us!" The Captain yelled from the wheel. "Somepony do something 'bout those ropes or we ain't going nowhere and their unicorns aren't gonna keep failing to turn off our engines forever! And they're bound to hit us eventually. Situation ain't good in multiple ways!"

Shining Armor galloped past her, Twilight jumped to follow him, and Cadance wasn't too far behind, both trying not to trip in all the ropes in the deck, when they reached the aft railing of her airship and could see both heavy and girthy ropes connected to the heavier airship. The bolts seemed to have fully penetrated her ship's hull and lodged themselves in the underdeck.

"We gotta cut these ropes or get those things out!" She cried with her legs on the railing. Then she grimaced at the next thought. "I hope they didn't hurt anypony or damage any important component."

Worse, the ropes shone with a pink light that indicated they were enchanted. Twilight couldn't properly analyze the spell from that far away, but she doubted getting rid of those would be easy. Then she turned her attention to the airship that trapped them.

"What is that thing?"

"It's a converted griffon whaling ship." Shining told her. "They're pulling us to them!"

She noticed it too. It made sense if it used to be a whaling ship. She just didn't want to think too long about whaling ships though. Instead, she stared at the thing, trying to figure out something about it. Find anything to exploit, but despite being rusted out in some places, her hull seemed solid and the ballistae on her bow seemed sturdy, metal-reinforced wood. She couldn't even see where the ropes were fixated. That was when she saw a pony she thought she might never, ever see again. A grape colored obese earth pony with a brown mane put held on to the railing with his legs, glowering fiercely at her wearing some sort of backpack over his leather barding.

"We'll get you now!" She blinked a couple of times at the sight. At least his coat did seem a lot healthier than before… "You're not getting away this time!"

"Hum… Do you know him?" Cadance asked on her side.

"It's a long story… Let's just say that he doesn't like me very much."

Then some of his ponies showed up on the railing. With muskets. She and Cadance screamed but fortunately Cadance thought fast and summoned a bubble shield around them. Their barding might protect them, but better safe than sorry.

"Shoot back!" Shinning yelled at them, while Starlight Glimmer dived to hide behind Twilight and Cadance.

He also shot magical missiles at the ponies, but with the ship swaying one way and the other with the Captain trying to escape, more than that, the other ship's railing had been reinforced with metal sheets. And to make things even worse, their ship was slightly above theirs. They really couldn't be on a worse position and he kept hitting nothing but metal, and by the time her own crewponies started shooting back, Shining had already been hit a few times and only remained standing because the magic in his barding protected him.

The problem remained though, that they couldn't hit any of their attackers.

"This is not working! We have to get ourselves free before the other ship comes in!" Her brother shouted and Twilight convinced herself they should've prepared better rather than keep talking about things they don't really understand. "Twilight! Cadance! Get down there and see if you can get us free!"

Finally, Shining Armor put his shield spell on her airship's railings and created some level of survivability for their ponies to fight back, and her ship's crewponies gathered there to shoot their muskets other than awkwardly hiding by the stairs to the raised deck above her quarters or the protection they put around the wheel.

It didn't surprise Twilght to see her brother taking command, but it was funny seeing Applejack and Rainbow Dash also taking command of the crew. She had never figured it out, but Rainbow actually had training on how to shoot their lever-trigger muskets. She really needed to stop underestimating Rainbow Dash.

And Applejack was Applejack. The practical farmpony that got things done.

"Come on, girls!" No time to think about that, though. Twilight cut the rope she was tied with and rushed towards the stairs down the main deck.

Cadance and Starlight mimicked and followed, fortunately avoiding the shots from the attacking airship, but the first growled loudly next to Twilight as they made their way. "We should be on the offensive! They just can't hold their own against us!"

"We're only two, Cadance!" Twilight shouted back over the sound of muskets and the magical engines. They passed two crewponies still using the elevated roof of the private room as cover and rushed towards the stairs to the underdeck. "They'll overwhelm us!"

"We'll be overwhelmed when Princesses Celestia and Luna show up! If we do something now, we'll have a chance at escaping!"

"We're not invincible, Cadance!" Twilight stared at her for a second before going down the stairs. Fortunately, Cadance came with, right behind Starlight Glimmer. "We won against Ponyville's militia, but they didn't have the Wonderbolts helping them, and neither were we on a flying airship!"

"I wasn't there!" Cadance insisted, but Twilight ignored her.

And on her way down, she almost fell face first on the crystalized metal wall when the airship maneuvered. Once down she could immediately see the magical systems of her airship past the pantry, including the giant, pink crystal shinning blocks that were the mana batteries on either side. On the back wall the harpoon bolts pierced the hull and their four bladed broadheads secured them in place. Their unicorn crewmember, the one responsible for the magical systems used his telekinetic magic to try and dislodge the things but didn't have a lot of luck. Looking closely the head blades were retractable and expanded well beyond the point where they pierced the hull. It seemed simply impossible to remove them without cutting them apart or around them. And they were, of course, enchanted.

"Princess!" He was a white and blue unicorn with a small cluster of stars for cutie mark and a short mohawk mane. "This thing is stuck for good!"

"Yikes!" Starlight looked at the star-shaped points. "Almost hit one of the mana batteries."

"Can't we cut these things out?" Twilight immediately analyzed the enchantments and didn't waste a lot of time on it. She saw it would take a long time to dispel one of those, much more both of them! Breaking would be just as hard as they were also enchanted with all sorts of protective spells.

"These things have got to have come from the Royal Armory!" Cadance complained. "I doubt we can cut or break these in practical time, Twilight! Maybe we can cut the hull around it?"

"It is also magically reinforced, Cadance!" Twilght grimaced. "Maybe if we knew the right spells."

"Then we're out of options, Twilight."

She grimaced and agreed, then she frowned because her patience was limited too. "Alright. Looks like you got your wish."

"Let's kick their rumps." The other princess grinned wildly at her and turned to rush outside leaving Twilight to see her robes flowing behind her. While she followed Cadance back up, she could feel a creeping headache encroaching and Starlight was right behind her.

Almost reaching the top of the stairs she remembered they were shooting muskets with stunning magical ammunition and even if her barding would protect her, it was just stupid to rush outside like Cadance had just done.

"Cadance! Get back here!" She really felt that headache while Starlight screeched to a halt next to her and she wished she had the slightest idea of what was going on inside Cadance's head. "Cadance!"

But she simply jumped the last two steps and hopped on the deck, beating her wings and spinning while drawing her magical bow from her back. She focused her magic through it for a second and let several fast-flying pink magical missiles that dented the metallic hull of the other airship. At least she caused the ponies and a griffon to hide behind the railing for a while and a few seemed to have pierced through and may have hit the others on the other side. But she just exposed herself!

"Riveting…" Twilight grumbled. No strategy, no preparation, just dumb impulse.

As soon as they felt safe, they went back to shoot a whole volley at her, but Cadance had already prepared herself and Twilight had to admit that the way Cadance snaked around and dodged mid-flight was rather impressive, even if she seemed to have been hit a few times.

She dove behind the airship next, though and Twilight saw a big white and gray griffon in leather armor jump off their ship, followed by two pegasi, and flew to meet her under Twilight's ship. Cadance would have to take care of herself though because Twilight had some actually thought out and strategic spellcasting to do.

Similarly, she flew up and summoned her staff, focusing her magic through it. Her horn and the staff released six purple magic missiles, but instead of hitting the hull, hers exploded right above the railing where ponies and diamond dogs hid to reload their muskets and covered the entire front of the deck with sticky bubblegum. It was one of her favorite combat spells because it was effective, and it was a variation of a spell she had used to good effect before with those ponies.

Hopefully it would jam the firing mechanisms in their weapons, confuse and delay them a little and at least they would be forced to change their guns, and it seemed to have worked. It gave her some time to think and for her ponies to regroup.

While they angrily tried to free their weapons and rid themselves of the bubblegum Twilight turned her attention to the Wonderbolt's ship. It still maneuvered to keep her airship under its guns' aim, and it worried her that they hadn't moved in to board them yet.

Suddenly her ship's engines 'choked', for lack of a better word and it simply stopped under the whaling ship's pull. She sighed and pulled her ears back. The Captain simply shrugged at her from the wheel. Fortunately, Starlight still was hunkered by the stairs to the underdeck.

"I'll see if I can do something about it!" She yelled before she turned to go back down the stairs and Twilight took a moment to see that she was rather vulnerable and grimaced at the fact that it was sheer luck that she managed to keep flying above the airship like that. It seemed like a really dumb thing to do when everypony had firearms.

Her friends fought along the crewponies and Rainbow thankfully hadn't done anything too rash. It was rather funny the way Rarity angrily carried a musket in her magic as though her anger might make it more powerful. At least Twilight had given then a moment or two to breathe.

Then a griffon on the whaling ship drew her attention, as he walked behind the ponies and diamond dogs trying to clean their muskets. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

Not only his boastful, puffed up chest and haughty gait amused Twilight, but also the reactions from the ponies and diamond dogs with the collective 'not this again' expression. It was a small yellow furred griffon, with black spots and a white head. He wore a belt holding a pair of griffon golden adorned revolvers and many bullets.

"What do you say, Princess?" He smiled all smug at her, while drawing and spinning his revolver on his trigger finger. "Shall we dance?"

"Nice gun, I'll give you that. But the engraving gives you no tactical advantage whatsoever." She smirked at him and he growled.

"I keep hearing that…"

Then she tried telekinetically grabbing his revolver from his paw and he almost lost it, with big surprised eyes while she still grinned at him.

"Whoa! Hey!" He did not like that. "I'll show you!"

He aimed his gun at her, but Twilight acted just as quickly, anticipating him. She dropped to the deck and covered herself with her wings and a shield spell. She underestimated the effect of the stunning bullets and while she was fine after he unloaded the gun on her, the spell the bullets caused her head to feel empty. It was simply hard to connect her thoughts.

She shook her head and looked just in time to see that the griffon had jumped at her and came down with his claws first. She screamed and drew her sword out of the air to protect herself, despite her magical shield. His claws rasped on her shield and it collapsed. She was sure he would've reached her if her sword wasn't in the way.

Her head was still fuzzy, and she didn't quite know how to react next when he used his revolver to bat away at her sword and reached with his other forelimb. What saved her was Rainbow Dash, tackling the griffon away and into the floor but he distanced himself with a beat of his wings.

Next thing she knew, Cadance was back in the airship, on her back against the floor with the big griffon on top of her while she kept him away with her legs and he tried jabbing her with a crystal stun baton. She looked furious and the two pegasi just arrived seconds later.

The whole thing was not going as planned at all!

Or wouldn't be going had they actually planned at all!

"Twi! You okay?!" Rainbow asked, still glaring at the smaller griffon, who casually reloaded his revolver and twitched it closed. She just realized she stood there doing nothing!

"Yes. Thank you." She shook her head again and the griffon curiously holstered his weapon, which caused her to hold her next attack. It was funny when griffons used that stance, standing on their hindlegs. Their forelimbs and fingers made it a lot more practical and she remembered reading that the act of pointing was just more natural to them. Maybe that was why they were the ones that invented guns. His posture seemed that much more balanced, not to mention that griffons seem to have it easier balancing themselves with the way theirs muscle mass seemed to be distributed. Not that it would be easy, but…

What was she doing studying the griffon's form in the middle of a fight?

"This…" He pointed a finger at her and she lowered her stance to a fighting one. "Is not going to end the way you think it is. Surrender before it gets ugly and someone gets injured for real."

Then his finger pointed behind her and she turned to see that the Wonderbolt airship was maneuvering to approach them side by side. Fast. Her ponies still fought, though. Thanks to Shining Armor's shield spell on the railings. Musket fire was near constant and fortunately they were too busy shooting at each other to bother with her and Rainbow Dash.

Applejack sat with her back to the railing. "This really ain't gonna end well for us, Twilight! We gotta do something in a hurry!"

As she spoke more of the enchanted musket balls exploded against the shield spell, and it seemed to hold, but Shining Armor wasn't fighting anymore. He just hid next to the door to the private quarters and focused on his spell with Twilight's two guards next to him, armed with muskets and their halberds. He got the brunt of the impact and the stunning effect that ammunition would have and he just wouldn't be able to hold much longer.

"Last chance, Princess." The nimble griffon insisted.

A pink flash showed Cadance was done playing with the bigger griffon and he yelped, flying past them and drawing the smaller griffon's attention. Twilight took the opportunity to cast her personal subduing spell at him. The small magical missile hit, and he screamed his surprise when he found himself enveloped in a ball of bubblegum.

It was rather amusing to see the griffon glowering at her as though she had cheated or something, or at her superior grin.

She found the other griffon with his back to the foremast, and Cadance ran at him with the bladed edge of her bow which dented into the mast with a sickening crunch after the griffon ducked and then punched Cadance in the muzzle.

"Dude! Did you just punch my wife?" Shining yeleld at him from his hiding place and the griffon stopped for a second looking at Shining Armor and then Cadance rubbing her muzzle, and then back at Shining Armor.

"She almost killed me!" He gestured at Cadance's bow still stuck to the mast.

Instants later she thrust her horn on his chest with a shock spell that sent him sliding on the crystalized metal deck all the way to the magically enhanced railing.

"Uh… My bad…" Shining added.

Meanwhile Cadance angrily pulled and swung her enchanted bow at the female pegasus that jumped out of the way and the other kept his distance, both rearing to attack her with those stunning magical rods. She was about to join Cadance when she heard the unmistakable raspy laughing of the Wonderbolt commander and turned to see her flying above them with several of her colleagues wearing a streamlined version of the Royal Guard armor that Twilight had never seen. It seemed lighter despite the additional armor and… Weapons attached to forelegs and their sides.

"You're going down, Rainbow Crash!" She laughed while she and her wingponies zoomed above and threw something that Twilight didn't quite see at the distance.

Shining rose his shield spell again and covered most of the ship with it. Little balls exploded one by one on his shield. It lasted for a few seconds more before Shining collapsed to the floor.

"Captain Armor!" White Leaf dropped her musket and yelled at him, shaking him in her hooves as Twilight and Cadance rushed to them. The later called his name and the others gave her space. Just to be sure, Twilight took one last look around. Rainbow had come with them and both griffons were still out. The two pegasi rushed forward when Shining collapsed and Cadance was distracted, but they didn't seem confident enough to attack when Twilight's crewponies came to help with their own stunning rods.

The worst part of it was that Shining's spell on the railings collapsed and that caught her friends and crewponies unaware. They started dropping too fast for her to follow, hit by the musket fire from the whaling ship. Thank goodness those were stunning bullets.

Then Cadance growled angrily while her shorn charged up with power and unleashed a wave of magical energy that coalesced into a bubble shield enveloping the airship.

Things immediately calmed down as the Wonderbolts outside couldn't get in and the shield stopped the musket balls from reaching them.

"This is bad!" Rainbow shrieked next to them. "The engines are out, and we're stuck in here! Cadance can't keep this up forever!"

As though answering to her, the obese pony on the converted whaler ship pointed a hoof at them. "Keep shooting! They can't hold forever!"

And adding to that, Spitfire signaled to their airship while hovering above them. Twilight didn't need to understand their signal language to know she was ordering the ship to go back to pummeling them.

Her friends seemed to be fine, though, staring at her, grouped together while the pegasi carried their stunned crewmates to the underdeck and Starlight stared at her from the stair downwards.

"Can't do anything, Twilight." She shook her head, all defeat. "Our unicorn says the ship engines are out for at least three hours until he's cleaned them of the magic disruption."

"Can we help?" Cadance asked, sitting on the floor and holding Shining Armor who snored, peacefully and softly.

"I don't think that you can, Princess! This thing is complicated, and he is the only one that knows how to purge the magical systems without damaging the imprinted spells."

"I should have studied about it at some time…" Twilight grumbled to herself.

"Well, we'll hold our ground!" Rainbow shouted, all determined and hoofing at the floor. "They may beat us, but it won't be without a fight."

Just as soon as she closed her mouth the cannons in the Wonderbolt airship sounded again. Much closer. Twilight didn't have a clue if the distance influenced the effectiveness of the magical disruption enchantment in their ammunition, but Cadance yelped with the impact on her shield, and glared at the airship.

"That hurt! It wasn't as bad when King Sombra tried to enter my shield!"

"They're using magic disruption. It's a wide-spectrum form of counterspell rather than trying to overwhelm your magic." Twilight walked to her. "It's how you're supposed to do it, actually. King Sombra was the one that didn't know what he was doing."

Rarity frowned. "Is it not illegal to shoot at sentient beings with magical disruption ammunition?"

"They're not shooting at us!" Twilight explained. "They're shooting the airship with shells that explode before impact. It you shoot a magical bullet of that sort at a creature… We don't know what happens, but it can't be good. The thing is that the exploding shells release the spell in a wide area, and it messes with your magical senses. The intention is to overwhelm your magical senses so much that you shut off… Or something like that. It's the same with the ship's engines. Like casting a stunning spell to disrupt the imprinted magic that makes them work."

"Thanks Twilight…" Pinkie walked closer too. "We really, really,_ really_ needed to know all that. Now, how do we deal with it?"

"Well, the thing is that we can't." She glowered at the pink pony. "That is why it is a good strategy: they force us to attack because it's going to drain our defenses, but we can't attack."

"Maybe it is a good time to surrender." The small griffon casually reminded her from his bubblegum prison and the bigger griffon, tied next to him stared blankly at the horizon. The two pegasi that had followed him were also tied next to them and the colt seemed dejected, while the mare seemed passively angry.

"We ain't talking to you all." Applejack pulled the rope, finishing to tie up the male pegasus. "Are we seriously just gonna stand here and hope Princess Cadance can hold the shield for long enough?"

"We may not have a choice, AJ." Twilight insisted.

"I'll go see if I can help our unicorn crewpony anyway." Starlight said and turned to go back down. "You better stay here and keep things under control."

Twilight nodded and looked around. Things seemed to be under control inside Cadance's shield: her crewponies took their unconscious mates to the safety of the underdeck and now hurried to defensive positions, her friends surrounded her, Cadance kept the shield up and sat on the floor with Shining Armor sleeping peacefully in her hooves. Outside the shield the ponies and diamond dogs in the whaling ship kept shooting at them, certainly trying to wither down the shield which unfortunately didn't break the ropes.

She grimaced. She ought to be thankful the ropes didn't disrupt the shield in any noticeable way.

Spitfire retreated back to the Wonderbolt airship, which was closer, but simply kept in its place, and shot volley after volley of enchanted ammunition at them.

It was just an awkward situation. "Uh… Does anypony have any ideas?"

"Did we really go to the Changeling Rock, and then ran all the way from Ponyville to Baltimare just to get stuck inside a shield?" Spike lashed out with open arms. "Come on! You guys gotta do something!"

"Don't you worry, Spikey." Rarity waved a hoof at him, unworried. "We have been in worse situations and found a way out."

"Why don't we ransom them out for our freedom?" Cadance nodded at their prisoners. "It was something that was done liberally in the past."

"Because we're not in the past anymore?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at her. What was she thinking? That Princess Celestia was going to pay gold or something for her griffon… Who were they?

She approached the group. The big griffon definitively looked like some sort of ex-military with that ugly scar of his. Most likely, a veteran from the Second Griffon War. The other griffon was smaller and younger, with a completely different coat pattern and Twilight didn't think they were father and son. Probably simple partners in profession. The two pegasi were another story. They didn't seem like Royal Guards either. Maybe they were from the Ponyville Militia since she saw Lord Grape Donut in the airship. The mare's muzzle looked a bit awkward. "What happened to you?"

"What do you think, genius?" She barked. "Your stupid friend broke my muzzle! They gave me a healing potion and sent me to catch you!"

"Hey!" Rainbow approached them. "First of all, calling Twilight a genius is an actual fact. And second, you asked for it!"

"Who are you guys?" Twilight insisted.

The big griffon answered. "We're mercenaries, Princess. Bounty hunters most of the time. These two pegasi are with Ponyville's town militia. Princess Celestia hired us to help train the militia and part of it is apprehending you and your cohorts. So, could you please? I'm not even getting paid for this, but to train them."

"He's the one that tried to arrest me in my house." Rainbow chuckled.

"Really cool trick you did with the ice, Rainbow Dash." The griffon complimented her. "Griffons can't do that."

Rainbow took a moment to bask in her ego and Twilight nodded at the information, then the griffon spoke again. "Flying Snake, Princess. That one is Ocelot."

"I don't know you." She put a hoof on her chin, staring at the griffon and he wasn't exactly worried.

"You only know royal sponsored knights, Princess. They aren't real mercenaries. They want fame and recognition more than money since the Crown sponsors them."

"Mercenaries you say?" Rarity approached with what Twilight supposed was a seductive grin. "What if we pay you extra to leave us alone? Maybe even distract the Wonderbolts for us? Hum?"

"It doesn't really work like that ma'am." The smaller griffon deadpanned. "We have a reputation to keep."

"They're mercenaries, Lady Rarity, but we are with the Ponyville militia." The pegasus colt said proudly and the mare huffed. "We are loyal to Princess Celestia."

"Shouldn't you guys be loyal to Twilight?" Spike grunted. "I mean… You live in Ponyville. And she lives there…"

"It's not like that Spike. Princess Celestia's, authority kinda trumps mine. Actually, I'm only the fourth Princess of Equestria. Ponies usually don't care about that, but it's apparently kind of important when we're fighting against each other."

The Wonderbolt airship fired its guns at them again and Cadance's shield held, as did she, if she did groan angrily again and stared at the ship as though she could murder it.

"Are you gonna be okay, Cadance?" Twilight worried Cadance's recent experience might impact on her ability to keep focus. She might end up hurting herself, but regardless, Cadance nodded at her.

"Not exactly what I intended to do, but this is what we got."

"Will you guys just give up? This whole mess is your fault!" The pegasus mare lashed out. "And you're screwed. You can't just hold this thing forever."

"Actually, it's all Celestia's and Luna's fault." Cadance glared at her.

"Whatever." The pegasus rolled her eyes. "It's 'you' princesses. I just want this mess done with so that I can go home, get my muzzle fixed, sue the Royal House, buy a mansion in Cloudsdale and never see these losers or you alicorn jerks ever again!"

Twilight's ears flopped and her cheeks seemed so hot. "It that what ponies think?"

"No, it's not, Princess!" The mare was going to say something else, but the colt cut her off. "I mean, we think you're wrong, but it's not like that. She's just callous."

Then he turned to her. "Come on, Candy! How can you say that? Things are finally looking up to us!"

"Just shut up, Flight Worthy! It's not looking up for us! We still live in the same dump of a little town where nopony gives a Bit about us and we're still stuck fighting a fight we can't win because some jerk princess that doesn't give a damn about us can't sit her flank in her throne and not create trouble!"

Twilight's eyes pointed to the deck and she hoofed mindlessly at it. "It's not my job to worry about you guys. I'm sorry. I never knew that my being there was such a stress for you. Nopony ever complained about anything to me… I would've helped if I knew there was a problem!"

Twilight felt too awful to say anything else and Applejack came to her. "Stop defending yourself, sugar cube. That pony there is just angry."

"Do you want to know what the problem with you is, Miss Crush?" The griffon, of all the present spoke. "You think that everyone is wrong so that you don't have to see that you are wrong. If you want things to get better, you have to change too. You are not good at your work, certainly not better than the others, but your Lord Protector at least is trying his best. All of them are. That is why I am helping. That is why Princess Celestia gave you guys another chance. You are surrounded with good ponies but you can't see past your petty bullshit."

It helped hearing that, but Twilight almost gasped when Cadance approached the tied-up mare and her ears fell at the stare she received from the Princess.

"You should be quiet." Cadance stared down the little pegasus. "You don't understand what you're talking about. But even more because you are offending me and my friends while you are not in a position to be rude. And your griffon friend is right."

The other airship fired its cannons again and Cadance winced when the magical balls exploded against her shield, but she held it, giving the belligerent mare a final stare before returning to Twilight and friends.

"She's right, though…" Applejack spoke first. "I reckon Princess Cadance, as powerful as she is, just plain can't hold the shield up forever."

"Yeah…" Rainbow agreed. "We gotta do something!"

"Even if the crewponies manage to restart the engines, we're still stuck to the whaling ship and the Wonderbolts won't let us leave!" Fluttershy didn't strike Twilight as very confident in their ability to deal with the present situation. "What are we going to do?"

"I'll tell you what we're not going to do!" Twilight tried her best at sounding brave, it was the least she should do for her friends. "We are not going to give up! We've come too far and the more we learn, the more we need to learn. There is just no stopping now!"

"We like your enthusiasm, Princess…" White Leaf told her, all worried and most of the others agreed. "But I don't think that we are in a good position."

She seemed to mean to speak more, but the Wonderbolt airship fired again and distracted them. Though it seemed too soon, and it sounded different too.

"That sounded different." She turned to the railing and the golden-hulled airship didn't seem to have fired just yet.

"That was thunder!" Rainbow followed her more closely than the others, also looking past the railing.

"I could swear that storm is following us…" Rarity mused as they stared at the storm they had seen last night.

"Against the wind!" Rainbow confirmed.

Past the Wonderbolt's airship the dark clouds definitively had moved to place the former in between them. Then something poked out of the storm. Long black polished metal hull, the airship had a flat top with what looked like a large entrance in the rounded-flat top and above it a series of windows. Its hull widened in the rear in two short and fat wings that seemed to house the thing's magical engines. It had a pair of white and black wings painted on top of it, following its hull and a jet black 'beack' that made for a wicked battering ram. As it shed the storm, like a snake shedding its skin, its hull attracted lightning that run on it and released on the ground bellow with its engines roaring louder still, like an angry storm when they spun up to give it speed.

And it was big!

"What is that thing?" Rarity gasped.

"That is a Ragnarok class warship, Lady Rarity." The older griffon obliged. "That one in particular is the Skoll. It seems that The Lion wants to chat. You really should be worrying about leaving. As fast as you can."

"On the contrary." Cadance grinned. "I think we might want to indulge."

"What do we do, lass?" The Captain stared at the flying monstrosity and then at Twilight.

"Not much we can do; stuck the way we are." She shrugged, even if she had been thinking that things are going a bit too far. "I suppose we'll see what happens for now. Maybe the griffons will help us."

"I don't think you're giving the situation the seriousness it warrants, Princess." The griffon complained. "Those are the bad guys that want a war to separate Griffonia from the Equestrian Confederacy. And in case you haven't noticed, they have a monster of a warship coming straight for you!"

"That is not what they want, though…" Rainbow approached.

"For feather's sake!" Snake cried. "You don't know what you are dealing with! They are nuts! Princess Celestia thinks that The Lion wants to be friends, but these griffons are biggest nutcases in this world and that is not a good thing as you might think!"

"It sounds as though you know something…" Twilight mused. "Why don't you tell us?"

"It's complicated!" The griffon told her, but rather than pressing further, Twilight's ears perked up when she noticed that Wonderbolt airship had stopped firing at them.

It started maneuvering to deal with the much larger and heavier griffon airship, but it was already on a position of disadvantage because it seemed that nopony had been paying much attention to the clouds that day!

In their defense, nopony expected an airship to come out of a storm.

While a magical beacon shot up from the Wonderbolt airship, the side on Skoll's armor opened and cannons started firing. The former was a much nimbler airship and, despite the bad start, was already on a position it could fire its cannons from the port side at the griffon warship. They fired at each other at the same time and while the shots exploded on the warship's hull its own shots exploded on a golden shield that manifested around the other airship upon impact.

Twilight really didn't expect to see anything like that today and this griffon airship completely changed everything. She needed some time to think.

Bored out of his mind, Chocolate Velvet still sat at the deep end of his new cell. He could feel the airship vibrating when its engines spun up and hear the cannons firing. He sighed. Not knowing exactly what was going on sucked and he at least hoped that Celestia would pluck him out of there before scuttling that smelly airship.

He almost startled when the door on the corridor outside his new cell opened and a griffon came inside. It was the green griffon from before.

He grinned internally… Well, well, well… What do you know?

"Do you have the authority to accept a deserter for asylum?" He seemed so serious and wasted no time, going straight to business with his whistling accent.

"Yes…" The alicorn's eyebrow raised. "I do. And Celestia is bound to listen to me, anyways."

"Excellent. I'll help you out of the warship and you put up a good word with the Mare for me."

"Sounds like a deal." He grinned, though the griffon didn't.

Regardless, he did open the cell with no delay using the keys he produced from under his wing. Chocolate walked up and lowered his head, looking up at the hornring. The griffon took a second to understand, but he reached with his paw and effortlessly slid it off.

"Thanks." Chocolate offered him a hoof and the griffon hesitated for a second. Bumped it with a closed fist, but seemed like he was going to puke. Curious, but something for another time.

"There. Let's go. It's a contained chaos, but the crew is bound to notice an alicorn roaming free. I assume you can melt faces off with your magic?"

"I would be more comfortable with a weapon." The griffon was ready and handed him a griffon-made revolver from under his wing. Plain black metal, six bullets, none of which felt non-lethal to his magical senses. "I guess not killing is not an option."

The griffon simply gave him a blank expression. "Shoot them where it hurts, not where it kills."

His medically trained mind objected, but he didn't think the griffon would care as he was about to open the door after peeking from it.

"So, do you actually have a plan?"

"Yes. Fly to the Princess' airship and say you accepted my defection."

"Well, at least it is a simple plan…" Chocolate grumbled.

"Simple works best of all. Especially because plans are bound to fail anyway. Let's go. I told the idiots guarding this door that I needed additional soldiers to take on the Wonderbolts and they fell for it like milking cubs."

"I get the feeling there's a story behind this…"

"No." He turned and stared sarcastically. "I simply woke up this morning feeling like it would be fun to betray my race."

"What about your friend?" Maybe he was a bit uncertain about the griffon and his motivation, but he felt like probing it just a little.

The griffon stopped for a second and stared blankly at the door. "I suppose we're not quite as friendly as we once were. Let's say that your pony friendship magic doesn't quite work when your kind thinks of you as inferior."

Chocolate decided it would be better to save his questions for later, the griffon finally opened the door to an unguarded corridor, and they left.

"Are we gonna do something or not?" Rainbow fidgeted next to Twilight.

They still watched as the two flying ships maneuvered circling around, up and down, with the lighter and nimbler airship leading the dance and staying ahead of the big warship's firing arc most of the time. It seemed that the griffons managed to mount heavy cannons in a way that they could be swiveled and that gave it an advantage that allowed to take potshots at the Wonderbolt airship a lot more frequently that Twilight was comfortable with, even if they never managed to fire their full broadside at them. Every shot exploded violently though.

Another thing she noticed is that the griffon airship seemed to be a bit more advanced than she'd expect. She was used to seeing pony 'technology' as the most advanced. That was why they invented the modern airships, the modern spells that allowed for all sorts of industrial applications. It worried her that nothing in that airship seemed particularly 'pony' to her. From the way she was built, all closed-up, to the weird magic her engines radiated and the way her cannons sounded different. In fact, that thing didn't look at all as one of the more usual converted airships she'd expect warships to be.

Not to mention that even if her own airship wasn't built from scratch it followed that same philosophy of the naval vessels. The griffon airship followed a completely different idea.

"I don't like this. They're firing real ammunition at the Wonderbolts, aren't they?" She turned the Captain.

"They sure are, lass. Never seen anything like it either. They're firing explosive ammunition like I've never saw; faster than any crew I've ever met. Also, that thing doesn't like to turn, but it's got so much armor everywhere that it can just sit still and take punishment. Reminds me of the mares o' war they used in the war, but that thing is a lot scarier. An' can fly."

"Twilight?" Rainbow insisted.

"I don't know if we can do anything, Rainbow." Applejack answered for her since Twilight still had her worried stare over the griffon airship. She had heard Rainbow, but the situation seemed to have gotten a bit out of hoof. Or a lot. Could she be responsible for any injuries those Wonderbolts suffered? Not directly, of course. And not like she feared legal repercussions, but she didn't want anypony being hurt because of her.

"Are we safe in here?" Fluttershy sounded worried too.

"Well, we are under Cadance's shield, sugar cube. It is a bit like it was in the Crystal Empire… But I suppose we ought to do something soon… I'm just not sure what."

"Why don't we try to talk to the ponies and the diamond dogs in that ship?" Pinkie pointed at the griffon whaling ship. "Now that the griffon ship showed up, they might be willing to talk!"

"They're way more loyal than that." The big griffon chuckled. "If anything, they want to get this job done quicker. And if I were you, surrender would be preferable to ending on those griffons' claws."

"Who are they?" Twilight asked.

"It's either The Lion or his kid. And neither are exactly friendly to your kind, Princess."

"How do you know so much about that airship? And you keep saying that they are bad. Princess Celestia said that him becoming king of the griffons is fine."

"I don't work only for you ponies." The mercenary said. "About two years ago, I was hired to find out what the northerners were doing with the iron they plucked out of the mountains. During that mission I happened upon a changeling spy from a team that Chrysalis had sent to figure out what was going on in the north and he shared some information his team had found. They built that monster in a secret shipyard under a crazy bitch called Gallensa. We told the changelings who that was since they wanted to extract the location of the shipyard from her and sabotage the place. We were going to help, but they followed her trail to Griffindel, and after that we never heard from them again."

"The changelings probably left you and went back to the Changeling Rock." Twilight mused. "Not to mention that even with Celestia's support the Griffonian Standing Army might side with the Chancellor. They may have to fight a civil war. They are preparing for it."

"We found their heads outside of Griffindell!" The griffon shook his head. "This is not a game, Princess! You ponies don't understand what is going on! Those griffons have a weird personality cult around the Lion and his mate and some weird ideal about the purity of their blood! I don't know what their ultimate goal is, but they don't need a monster like that to take a city like Griffonstone! Wake up!"

His words caused ponies to gasp and Twilight reeled back a step. "Maybe… Maybe they want to use it as a deterrent! To ensure that no one will resist The Lion being crowned king."

"How come I've never been involved in this?" Twilight jumped, startled with Cadance's anger. "They have probably been buying raw materials for magical components from the Crystal Empire for years and this is the first I've heard of this!"

"Cadie, calm down. Please." Shining was awake, and approached her, but didn't look too well, despite his attempt at calming her. "I understand why you're angry, but now is not the time."

Cadance cried his name and hugged him while he smiled a bit groggily and petted the back of her neck with a hoof.

"Are you okay, Shining?" Twilight asked him in the meanwhile.

"Yeah… Their magical disruption shots put me down for a while, but I'm fine." Then his ears perked up. "Whoa! What is that thing?"

"A griffon warship…" Twilight pointed. "It came out of that storm."

"Oh boy… they're fighting the Wonderbolts?"

"Hey, Captain Armor?" The older, bigger griffon called with a smirk. "Will you convince your dear sister and you lovely wife that thing is trouble, and we should be trying to leave?"

Shining didn't look very excited at the angry stare he got from Cadance and Twilight stared at him, but inquisitively. "Yeah… I'm inclined to agree."

"Princesses, when you left Ponyville, Princess Celestia hired me and my team to train the militia. We ended up coming after you and Princess Celestia had my airship teleported in on Baltimare. Well, a few hours later I got a message from her saying that griffons had hijacked the facility and teleported in that monstrosity. And it went after you. We teamed up with the Wonderbolts to ambush you guys here because we wanted to catch you before that airship and Princess Celestia had a fleet searching for it, but they seem to have missed it. Princess Celestia had also sent Prince Chocolate Velvet to flush you out before the griffons arrived at Haybale."

"Oh… Yeah…" Cadance stared at the floor and rubbed her legs together. "I should have mentioned that…"

"You think?!" Twilight squeaked. "That was what happened in Haybale?"

"Chocolate let me go in Haybale… I thought it wasn't important or that we should try to contact the griffons, especially because Celestia didn't want us to come into contact with them and I figured at the time they could have information about the Harpy and the Alicorns." She said sheepishly, and Twilight was about to tell her how much she screwed up and she didn't understand why she had done that, but Fluttershy spoke sooner.

"Guys! Look!" Fluttershy's wings flared as she pointed at the griffon airship and it took Twilight an instant or two before she realized what she was seeing. Flying creatures, most likely griffons, ran from under the raised part on the aft and took flight. Countless black dots. All the while their airship was hit repeatedly by the Wonderbolt airship.

"That looks dangerous with the airships shooting and moving around." Pinkie said, and it was quite obvious, thus nopony else said anything. Instead they simply watched powerless to do anything as the griffons swarmed the gold hulled airship and it seemed as though there was a fierce exchange of musket fire as the smoke that was already forming up because of the cannons firing started becoming like a mist. Then Twilight and her friends gasped as black dots started falling from the sky.

"Calm… Calm down girls." Her stomach felt like a cold pit at the sight, but Twilight knew that they ought to be using non-lethal ammunition too. "They're using stunning bullets and their instincts will force their wings open to soften the fall… At worse they'll be a bit hurt…"

Then a voice called from the whaling ship. A white female griffon with yellow head pointed at the skirmish in the distance. "Snake! That is messed up! They won't be ignoring us for long!"

"I know!" The big griffon tied down on her airship nodded to her and friends. "Get these stupid ponies to understand we gotta go!"

"No." Cadance frowned. "I want to talk to them. Twilight?"

She let a gasp escape at the sound of her name. She hadn't even noticed until it hurt, but she bit her lip, looking at Cadance and then at the big griffon. Then she looked at Cadance again and her friends. What was she supposed to do? Ideally, they should escape, but that didn't seem likely with the _Magic of Friendship_ stuck to the heavy whaling ship. Not to mention that if the Wonderbolt airship fired off a magical beacon, they expected reinforcements. Princess Celestia was bound to show up at any time. And what Mister Snake had said resonated from the back of her mind.

"They don't want to talk, dumbass!" The white griffon lady shouted from the other ship. "They hijacked a teleporter to bring a warship! For feather's sake!"

Rarity approached Twilight, still wearing her stylish gambeson, and with her sword drawn. "These griffons are with The Lion. They must have information about Emperor Grigor. Maybe even about what caused Princess Celestia to decide for changing our historical records. They may even have more information about the griffon invasion to Equestria, about what happened to Star Swirl and the others and how did the Princesses come to rule Equestria. This is flirting with danger, but it is quite exciting, and we have been doing that for quite some time now. It could get us some answers."

"They may have something that will force Princess Celestia and Luna to open up about all that!" Cadance insisted.

"Twilight…" Applejack seemed serious. "Cadance and that 'Snake' griffon told us that Princess Celestia sent Chocolate Velvet to spook us from Haybale, where you met a griffon with stuff that interested you. Then this here warship showed up and they came after us. They must have known we'd be in Haybale. They used Miss Goodread and Sunburst to set this up, for crying out loud!"

"Applejack is right!" Shining grimaced. "I told you guys it was a trap!"

"Because they wanted to meet us!" Cadance hoofed angrily at the floor. "It doesn't mean they mean us harm!"

Then Twilight realized something that worried her even more. "What if they have Chocolate Velvet?"

"Oh, crud." Applejack pulled her hat to her face and grumbled some more. "He can take care of himself! If anything, he put himself in danger so that you all insane ponies don't get hurt!"

Someone knocked on the shield and they looked up to see a rather big griffon wearing an intricately adorned armor with gray fur adornments and a greatsword on his back. Purple coat and mustard head with golden eyes full of superior glee, he hovered just outside of it. He was also surrounded with mean looking griffons in black and golden armor carrying the griffon revolver muskets and other weapons. He was also accompanied by other more distinctive griffons, but the one that really drew Twilight's attention was the yellow and white one with a light, form-fitting armor of golden plates and several crystals attached to it. She waved wiggling her fingers, and Twilight really didn't like her grin one bit.

"Well met, your highnesses." He smirked and spoke with an accent. "I would have presented myself more formally, but the present situation is rather unorthodox, and I believe better presentations can wait. I am Grigory, Heir to the Lion, and this beautiful griffoness here is my mate, Lady Gallensa. May we perhaps be of assistance?"

"Uhhhhhhhh…." Was all that Twilight managed to say as her ears gradually fell to the sides of her head. "Yes… Greetings? Uh…"

"Can you get us rid of that thing?" Cadance pointed at the whaling ship, where the ponies and diamond dogs stopped firing, and the griffon lady looked ready to murder somepony with the way she stared at them.

"Yes." The griffon replied casually, then directed his attention at their griffon prisoner. "Greetings, Master Flying Snake."

"Go fuck yourself." The other said with the same murderous stare, but Grigory ignored that.

"I believe it would benefit all of us if you told your associates to release the Princess' airship. You see, the Skoll's cannons cannot be loaded with magical disruption shells and it would make for a poor first impression with the Princesses if I ordered those ponies and diamond dogs killed."

"I have a better idea, you brat!" Spitfire showed up with an escort of some twelve pegasi with the same armor she wore, also carrying weapons. "How about we sit our asses here, until Princess Celestia shows up with the rest of the fleet and then you can go home with whatever is left of your dad's airship once she's done whooping your ass! I mean, I would do it myself, but I don't want the political mess and it is the Princess job to keep you noble plotholes in line anyways!"

Of course, griffons pointed guns at pegasi that did the same and neither side seemed particularly intimidated while Twilight regretted more and more past events that led to that point.

"Captain, with all due respect, I believe you will find that the Skoll is quite formidable and more than prepared to hold its own against any of your antiquated converted airships."

"How about we throw a party?" All of them stared at Pinkie Pie, who grinned widely. "A Let's Not Kill Each Other Party?"

After a short silence, attentions returned to the impasse.

"Anyway… It's your funeral, chicken-head." Spitfire turned to leave, but then she faced Twilight and Cadance. "This is all your fault. Just so you know, this is all your fault!"

Fortunately, instead of shooting each other right there, Spitfire retreated towards her airship. Twilight could still see them fighting in the distance and it seemed bad. She had to keep reminding herself that they weren't actually injuring each other too much. At least the airships stopped firing at each other, and that was something good, she figured.

"Regardless, I believe it is a better idea for you both to come aboard the Skoll. I intend on escorting you to an ancient site that would be related to your research."

"I would rather go there on my own airship if that would be possible." Twilight did her best not to show but she didn't like that idea and hopefully Cadance wouldn't do anything stupid. She didn't fully trust that griffon and while the 'bait' was very good, she feared that Mister Snake's argument was too good to ignore. Not to mention that if she left her friends behind, they would be at the Princesses' mercy and she couldn't fully trust them either. What a situation to be in… Not to mention, Naminé. Discord was adamant they must see her. "I would rather stay with my friends. The situation with Mister Snake's airship notwithstanding for the moment."

Before Grigory could answer an intense itch enveloped Twilight's horn. So much that she simply couldn't hold the impulse to scratch it with a hoof. "Ooow! What is this?!"

A quick glance around let her see that the other horned ponies felt the same and the pegasi shuffled their wings as though they suffered from a similar predicament and so did the griffons. In fact, it got so bad that Twilight's entire body seemed to itch.

"Oh no!" Her eyes shot wide open as soon as she understood what was happening.

A deep boom followed, and the ensuing shockwave cleared away the clouds. It pushed the griffons away, but they controlled their flight soon enough. What really worried twilight now was that the area to their right, or starboard as The Captain would insist, where there once was empty space was occupied by an entire fleet of airships with golden hulls, except for one monstrosity of a white airship with golden ornaments and the sun on her sails that could only be Celestia's.

Cadance's right eye trembled just a bit and she squeaked like a terrified bathtub duckie. "Did she just teleport the entire fleet?!"

Before freaking out Twilight turned to the griffon prince. "I hope you have a plan because mine was running away as fast as I could!"

He seemed unconcerned. "Not to worry. I have a prisoner I intended to use for something else, but I should be able to use him to force Princess Celestia to capitulate."

"I imagine you wanted to use Chocolate Velvet to force me onboard your ship…" Twilight gave him an unfriendly stare, but he met it casually.

"The thought never crossed my mind, Princess."

Then Twilight counted exactly half a second when they looked up at the sound of frantically flapping wings and saw the brown alicorn flying overhead accompanied by a green griffon in armor. Going straight to the newly arrived airship fleet.

There was another moment of silence until one of Grigory's companions, a white owl-looking griffoness with caramel markings spoke with a raspy voice and a level of astonishment. "Wow. That plan crumbled on multiple levels and faster than Gewehr's pickup lines."

Despite the seriousness of the situation Cadance giggled at that and Twilight figured she would like to meet that Gewehr guy.

"First time for you guys?" Rainbow actually looked bored. "Twilight could probably write a book about all the times we planned for something and it all went south."

Another griffon said something that Twilight didn't understand. The big one, almost black fur under his black and gold armor and with a white head told him watching the pair flying towards the fleet.

"We have to get out of here!" Twilight shrieked. "Now!"

"Things have changed." Grigory was not too worried. "I will order the Skoll to open fire. Get your friends out of the way if you want them to live, mercenary."

Grigory was going to say something, but Celestia's amplified voice interrupted him. "Good morning, Master Grigory! Would you mind not hurting my ponies, please?"

The griffon sighed and muttered something under his breath while one of the crewponies brought her a spyglass and she could see the princess on the big ship holding a megaphone with her telekinetic magic and waving with a wing, next to Luna and Chrysalis. "Also, if you surrender, I promise I will not tell your father that you took out his secret airship that should not exist!"

Grigory's mate told him something, but unfortunately Twilight didn't understand, because she looked and sounded angry at him despite his calm response.

Then Luna poked at her sister and said something. Celestia nodded and spoke again. "I also promise I will help you pay for all the money EQMagical wants to charge your family for the illegal use of the teleporter, damages and lost revenue! Including all the charges of conspiracy and treason! Oh! And damages to the young mare your girlfriend hurt. Was there anything else Luna?"

She turned to Luna and the three of them started discussing over something. Chrysalis wings buzzed and she stomped the floor while Luna made some gestures with a hoof, but Celestia shook her head and said something. It seemed like they would be entertained for some time.

Again, there was silence around Twilight.

"Seriously, dude?" Rainbow screeched and the two griffons on the deck started laughing.

Twilight worried though. That griffon didn't look happy at all. He scowled and grabbed his big friend by the gorget of his armor to speak angrily in that language she didn't understand. It did sound like the common Griffonese, which was exotic in itself but she could understand enough. This language of theirs sounded very different and at the same time similar. She exchanged a glance with Cadance and she shrugged.

"Grigory, you're acting like a damn child!" The mercenary Snake called him. "Admit you've made a mistake and earn some of Lord Gilad's honor for yourself by actually acting like an adult!"

"Silence, mercenary. Lest I remind you degenerate traitor to your race of all the ways I can hurt you!" He roared back and Twilight worried even more that not only they seemed to be in a bad spot, but the big scary griffon was starting to lose his composure. Mister Snake, though, fell silent but didn't seem very happy.

To make things worse his big friend told Grigory something in their language, but he only shoved him and yelled at him, pointing at Princess Celestia's airship. That was no way to talk to one's friend and never a good sign. The big griffon made a series of complex signs with his paws at the airship and Twilight imagined they would be watching from there with a spyglass or something. Then Grigory ordered the others around and they followed him around Cadance's shield.

"What's you all's story with that griffon?" Applejack asked the two stuck on her airship's deck, but Mister Snake wasn't on a very agreeable mood.

"Not willing to share stories right now, farmpony."

"Sheesh… Salty griffon." Pinkie complained. "What do we do now, Twilight?"

Twilight turned to the Capitan. "We run. Full-speed as soon as we're free and our engines are running again."

He nodded and rushed back to his position controlling the helm while Twilight turned to her friends. "Be ready to defend the airship again."

She took a second to look at them acknowledging her direction and they seemed fine. Cadance seemed a bit tired, but she was holding the shield and she was sure that she would be fine for some time yet. The others weren't as tired as they were during the fight in Ponyville so they should hold for a while. The problem was that if Grigory couldn't hold back Princess Celestia's airship they'd be several times out of their league.

For the moment she'd focus on watching Grigory's griffons taking care of the Mister Snake's airship. They flew underneath it, far from the reach of their guns and then jumped onboard from the sides. It seemed like an effective tactic, even if the big griffon lady onboard the ship had everypony and the diamond dogs retreat underdeck rather than defend the airship.

"I swear, if they hurt my mate, I'm going to lean all I can on Princess Celestia to get you to pay." The big griffon told her, but Cadance answered before Twilight could.

"Well, there was nothing stopping you guys from giving up."

The griffons with Grigory chased them as three of them entered the small hut-like house where the wheel was located, and they dragged out a diamond dog they threw to the floor and Twilight couldn't see anymore. Meanwhile the remaining ones grabbed axes from the ship's own supply of tools and started hacking at the support structures for the ballistae and whatever held the ropes secured.

"I'm sorry, Mister Snake." Twilight turned to him but made sure to keep a serious expression. "Our mission is important."

He didn't answer, but his expression did soften up a bit. Twilight couldn't really read what his thoughts might be, but the pegasus mare was livid.

"I hope you get your crowns taken away, and then that you get arrested! Although I bet that Princess Celestia would still protect you two!"

Finally, the griffon airship, the Skoll, opened fire against Princess Celestia's. They heard the resonant boom of cannons firing and Twilight could swear she heard the shots whizzing by, but they collided with a magical shield rather than the airship itself.

"How come these airships have magical shields and yours don't Twilight?" Rarity turned to her after watching the fireworks of the shots exploding midair.

"Hum… There wasn't a box named 'magical shields' in the form when I bought mine?"

The large white and gold airship fired back with a thundering roar of its own and a series of magical flares shot up. The fleet started maneuvering with the increasing noise of magical engines spinning up. Twilight realized she was in the middle of what likely was the first real airship battle in history. Also, her first time seeing warships firing for effect. A single salvo of those would likely reduce her airship to a collection of crystalized metal splinters and main her friends. That would be enough, but beyond that, each one of those airships was filled with creatures.

She was scared.

"We have to get out of here!" She blurted. "We'll get caught in the crossfire!"

"Engines be down, princess." The Captain sounded almost bored from the wheel. "We ain't goin' nowhere. Much less stuck like we be."

"Twilight, let me see the spyglass." Shining beckoned with a hoof and she gave it to him. Stood close and looked in the same direction he did, at Princess Celestia's airship. "The Break of Dawn isn't firing with all her cannons. Lower gun decks are closed."

He gave it back to her and she used it too. Indeed, the little windows where the cannons were supposed to be sticking out were closed. Not only that, but unlike she would have imagined the gun decks weren't removed. The ship has had additional armor added and the gunports were an example and the ship fired, but only with the main deck worth of guns.

Other ships fired under Twilight's and it was a cacophony of thundering guns and another when they hit the larger griffon ship with disturbing metallic noises along with the explosions at impact. The smell of spent gunpower was quick to arrive but the noises of firing guns and exploding ammo didn't subdue. There were ships of several shapes and sizes. She recognized most of them by the number of decks and sails as their individual classes, and she could even understand their function. A large and long ship with no weapons drew her attention, but she felt it wasn't important, as it stayed further away.

"Why aren't they using all their guns?" She returned to the subject of Celestia's airship and lowered the spyglass, looking up at her brother.

"They could be protecting the lower decks, but their target would be one for full broadside. The only reason I can think why they aren't using all cannons is that Princess Celestia isn't showing all her cards…"

Twilight hummed. "I remember you telling us these griffons developed new weapons… It would be silly to imagine Princess Celestia wouldn't be doing the same… I suppose that I simply don't know everything that is going on."

Curses… More and more that whole quest of theirs started to feel misguided.

"What does that mean for us now?" Fluttershy asked while the others simply stared.

"Nothing right now. We still have to escape." She shook her head.

Then the Skoll fired its cannons again. She seemed to have less cannons, but they seemed to reload faster. How, Twilight had no idea, but the salvo hit a ship that had maneuvered under the larger ship. The explosions skirted her magical shields, but it seemed as tough one or two shells got through and exploded in the golden crystalized metal hull. It literally tore pieces of armor out. Another salvo literally tore the airship in half and sent pieces of crystalized metal in all directions. Twilight and the others screamed and ran to the railing in time to see the two disjointed halves collapsing from the sky while golden armored pegasi jumped out and flew away from the were they used to be connected or jumped off the broken deck.

The Skoll remained under constant bombardment though. Twilight could see places where its armor had deformed, but it didn't seem to be serious.

"Is this how naval combat used to be?" Rarity whined. Twilight could imagine Rarity would have a romanticized idea of naval combat and the sight would have disturbed her. Just as it did Twilight and she understood that cannons firing was only fun when Pinkie was involved.

"Nay." One of the crewponies said. "You'd usually shoot the other ship fulla holes and the water would take'er down. Or ya'd jump onboard and take'er over. This thing the griffons made is a monster."

Twilight put her hoof on the railing and looked over her shoulder at the Wonderbolt airship. It seemed to not fire at the Skoll anymore, but there was enough smoke in the air that she thought that they were still fighting onboard and that the griffons managed to land on it.

Looking back at the large white and gold ship, Twilight saw more magical flares shooting up in patterns of colors and it was difficult to gather it all at once. Ships maneuvered faster than she expected, and all the smoke stung the eyes as much as breathing itched her nostrils and inside. The griffon airship didn't turn so well and started taking shots from all directions. Twilight grimaced and wondered if Grigory hadn't overestimated what a single airship, large as it might be could do on its own.

Then one of her crewponies, the one that stayed at the top of the mast cried at them. "Look lively! We got flyers hoay! Starboard low an' they look like business!"

That time Twilight looked in the right direction and a… Squadron? Yeah, she'd call them squadron. A squadron of big black changelings flew towards them from below, rose above her airship…

"For Queen and Swarm!" One of those weird tall changelings in barding screamed, and then they splatted against Cadance's shield.

They literally threw themselves at Cadance's shield. Again. And again. Quite a few times more.

"Hum… What are they doing?" Pinkie grimaced.

"I think they're trying to break the shield…" Twilight mused a little worried. "Be careful. It could be some weird strategy to catch us off-guard."

Then she heard Chrysalis voice from Celestia's airship. "What are you doing, Bossy, you idiot?"

The tall changeling that seemed to be in charge looked at the airship and shouted back. "I'm supposed to learn strategy from past battles! Tis the Canterlot Siege Strategy!"

"I can't hear you from here, you retard! Use your magic at her shield before I go there and…" It sounded as though she had more to say but somepony took the megaphone from her.

The big changeling shrugged and pointed a hoof at Twilight's ship. "Hit'em with magic for all you're worth!"

Her soldiers wasted no time in hovering around the shield, buzzing their wings and shooting magical beams of green changeling magic at it. Twilight let her jaw hang and looked at Cadance. Her ears were flat on the sides of her head and she didn't look very happy, but she barely winced. The griffons on Mister Snake's airship were busy fighting off the wonderbolts and Twilight hadn't even seen them arrive!

"Captain, now would be a great time for our engines to restart!" She shrieked at the pegasus at the helm, but he simply hung his weight at the wheel, looking bored.

"Not me call, lass."

Twilight huffed and walked past her friends watching the shield for any failing and went down the stairs where she saw Starlight Glimmer looking over the unicorn carefully casting a spell over an open panel on the crystalized metal wall. Inside were golden wires and some pink shining crystals.

"Well?" She cried.

"It's a mess!" Starlight cried back showing her frazzled mane when she turned.

"It's a slow process, princess." The unicorn turned at her too.

"Well, get it done or it won't matter because things aren't going well. And you come back up. We may need your help to fight the changelings!"

Both nodded and her friend followed her up just in time to see that the two griffons had set themselves free and the big one, Snake, jumped at Cadance and surprised her. She cried, but it was too late. He tackled Cadance and she screamed. Holding her down with his weight he hit the tip of her horn with a finger and her shield collapsed with her shriek.

"Have at'em!" She heard the changeling commander yelling along with their buzzing wings. She turned in time to deflect a magical beam and jumped to the side with a flap of her wings. She didn't see where her sword ended up when the griffon attacked her and her mind was slow, but it returned to her when she summoned it and she screamed, pushing at the changeling with a quick swipe of her sword that caused it to dodge back, landing on his hindlegs.

Just then she realized she was angry!

"Alright! You want a fight; you will have one!" She cried and her horn shone fiercely along with the jewels in her Element of Harmony before releasing a beam of purple light with a crack and the changeling screamed crashing through the crystalized metal railing of her airship. He fell backwards and Twilight turned with a growl when a magical bullet snapped against her barding.

The small, black spotted griffon shot again at her with his revolver and she would never forget the panicked stare in his face when she actually batted the shot away with a wing and then summoned her staff, shoving it towards him, channeling the magic from her horn and wrapping his gun around his paw.

She didn't really care if he screamed from pain or the scare. What mattered was that he jumped back and fell on his back. She jumped with a flap of her wings and her front hooves came down squarely on his chest. She wasn't very heavy, but when the pommel of her sword hit his jaw, it sounded like it was.

"Get them under control already!" The changeling commander screamed, drawing her double sword from her side and lunging to the deck. With another look around, Twilight saw Rainbow grappling with one of the changelings, but she moved way too fast for the large and heavy creature to hit her with her hooves and instead got kicked several times on her face. Applejack threw one at the wall of the private room and kicked the air out of the changeling. Pinkie dragged Fluttershy inside and Twilight's head dodged down right in time when a changeling tried hitting her with the flat of her double-bladed weapon. One simple spell encased the changeling in a bubblegum prison.

She screeched at Twilight and proceeded to _bitting _the thing. What the… Creatures had never done that! "Stop that!"

All the changeling managed was to get her mouth stuck and Twilight rolled her eyes.

The Skoll shot its cannons at another airship, on her other side since it was almost surrounded by then and much like the other ship, its port side exploded and pieces of it flew everywhere as it started capsizing on its side and her crew abandoned her.

"Oh gosh, this ain't good, Twilight." Applejack looked like she was going to be sick and Twilight understood. Nothing she could do, though.

"Just fight the changelings, AJ!" She yelled.

She saw Shining Armor and her personal guards fighting next to the Captain at the wheel and her crewponies shot muskets at the Wonderbolts as they had already returned. Spitfire shouted orders. Why the heck wasn't she defending her own airship?

Another changeling came at Twilight with his sword and she batted away his one-two strikes with her own, stepping back before dodging under a third swing and hitting the changeling's underside with her magically charged horn with enough force to cause it to lose its weapon and collapse on his side with a long grunt.

She saw the large griffon that was mister Flying Snake clawing at Cadance to have his paw batted away with the dull side of her bladed bow so hard she was sure something broke. Then she stood and kicked at his face with her hooves, and not satisfied, she jumped up, enveloping him on her telekinetic spell and shoved him into the floor with her magic and her own momentum.

It almost scared Twilight how much force she used, but the big and grizzled griffon seemed like he would be fine. He actually rolled to the side when Cadance came hooves down on him and dented the floor.

"Cadance! Hold back just a notch? Are you trying to kill that griffon?!"

"YES!" The other alicorn galloped past her after the griffon that retreated with a flap of his wings.

She knew Cadance didn't really meant it, and she was going to nag at her some more, but a pair of wonderbolts shot Twilight with something. They seemed to have multi-barreled firearms strapped to the forelegs of their armor, like a series of pistols to fire in sequence. Two or so shots connected before she formed a magical shield in front of her. Further impacts hurt less, but still annoyed her. They tried flying away but she hit one of them with a salvo of magical missiles from her horn and he barreled out of control until she lost sight of them.

Her eyes fell on Skoll again just as it fired again, but rather than its cannons on the sides, it shot a pair of what looked like magical missiles from the front edge of its wings. They turned in wide arc and trained on the large white and gold ship. They flew fast leaving behind a trail of lightning in the sky and collided with the magical shield, exploding violently in a show of sparks and lightning bolts, but failed to damage the actual ship beyond some of the armor that flew off her side.

A changeling screeched and drew her attention to herself before she shot a magical beam at Twilight that she effortlessly deflected away after catching it in her horn. Then she held one of the changeling's hooves in her magic and caused her to trip and spin out of control under the railing and out of the airship, trying to grasp at the edge like she had forgotten she had wings or something.

Rainbow landed next to her scraping her hooves on the floor, dodging a tall changeling with a long staff with green crystal point that sparkled with magic. Twilight smacked the changeling in the face with the flat side of her sword and put him out of the fight.

"This isn't going very well!" The pegasus yelled over all the noise, putting herself in a fighting stance on Twilight's side, but towards the other side. "Wonderbolts are kicking our butts with the changelings pestering us!"

Twilight hadn't noticed, but it was a proper strategy… Changeling weirdoes in large numbers distracting them with the elite wonderbolts doing the real damage.

"We should be running away, not fighting!" Twilight growled and promptly batted away with her sword a prod from one of the changelings with spears. Then she followed with a cut and broke the changeling's weapon, but he flew away. "They're tiring us!"

The griffon airship fired again and overwhelmed another airship's magical shields. Tore it asunder with a loud crack and boom.

"I don't like these griffons blowing up our ships either!" Rainbow did not sound happy. "They're not holding back and there's no way everypony is surviving, Twilight!"

"I know, but there isn't anything I can do about it!" Twilight's blood boiled. It was the fight and what Rainbow had just said, but she couldn't do anything about it!

Smaller warships had maneuvered closer to the griffon warship and trails of light shot from certain points in its hull and they seemed to pick apart the crystalized metal in those airships, but it didn't seem to be too serious and their own cannons shot at the opening in the larger airship's armor. Several pink explosions followed and despite the easy targets, the Skoll's cannons didn't shoot back.

"I think they got their cannoneers, Twilight." Rainbow mused. "They'll turn their attention to us if they put that thing under control."

Twilight deadpanned to herself at Rainbow's brilliant tactical advice and in the meanwhile other ships approached the Wonderbolt's. Pegasi in golden barding flew in as the smaller ships also fired their cannons at Skoll. Pieces of its armor flew off the raised part of its hull and there was an explosion, a real one, inside as cannons fired against the closed doors.

The constant barrage was causing real damage to the griffons' monster. Large plates of armor flew off when something exploded where the right wing connected to the main hull and her engines started sparking on that side.

Then Twilight heard a griffon screeching angrily in the language she didn't understand. She and Rainbow looked over to the whaling ship on the other side to see Grigory's girlfriend, or whatever she was, making angry gestures at the griffon ship. Then she looked and sounded like she complained to Grigory who was next to her fighting off two wonderbolts with his longsword.

Then they started shouting at each other and the ponies stopped to stare until she actually lunged at him, flailing her claws, in his face and pointed at the airship, screeching some more before pointing at it again. Twilight and Rainbow gasped and the two Wonderbolts flew away as fast as they could.

"Well, that is no Gabby…" Twilight said plainly.

"I wish I could understand what they're saying! Oh! Gotta go!" The other chuckled and then flew away towards the aft.

No changeling threatened Twilight for the moment, so she stared at the whaling ship again. Grigory's big friend stayed with his 'mate' while Grigory jumped up and made a series of signs to the airship. Then he landed close to her in a wing beat. She jumped away with a squeal.

"Any snipers in your team, princess?"

"Snipper?" What? "As in somepony that cuts manes? Rarity is good with that."

"Never mind." He wasn't impressed and simply hovered a few hooves above the floor flashing a few more 'paw signs' at their airship.

Twilight watched curiously until something flew off the airship into the sky above and a set of small parachutes opened, holding a long black box.

"Kindly grab that for me, please. Before the others notice."

She looked up at the thing again and charged her horn. The thing disappeared and reappeared on her airship's floor. Then she kept watching while Grigory quickly removed a harness from it. It looked like a gun case to Twilight.

"Is that a weapon?"

"No Princess…" He grinned widely. "This is an exquisite tool for an exceptional artist."

He blew a two-toned whistle, looking up and threw the whole case up. "Elle!"

His white and caramel friend zoomed by and grabbed the case, soon letting go of it and staying with the long firearm that was inside, circling around. Then she snuggled with it and kicked her hindleg.

"She really likes that thing, doesn't she?"

Suddenly his smile vanished. "Gabrielle sleeps with the damn thing _and_ its inventor…"

"Quirky much?" Twilight smirked and he answered with a mirk of his own.

"I suppose we have a bit of a gun culture among some griffons. They do help us survive, after all. Nothing too extreme compared to your 'magic culture'."

"Friendship culture, you mean?" Twilight raised an eyebrow while he flashed yet a couple more signs to his white friend and she nodded before flying away. "What did you tell her?"

"I told her to find their leaders and take them out of the battle."

"Sheesh. Last time I tried something like a sign language with my friends it ended up with a sign that Rainbow would use to make fun of me behind my back."

"You should discipline them better." He just said it so casually Twilight though she had understood him wrong, but he didn't wait to hear her and flew away.

Her wings flared. "Wait! What do you mean 'take them out'?!"

"Don't worry, Princess!" He smirked from above. "I'd trust her to shoot an apple on my head from over a thousand cubits!"

"What is a cubit?!" She stomped the floor. "Grigory!"

She meant to go after him, but two wonderbolts that just arrived had other ideas. The first attacked her head on with a magical stunning prod attached to his armor's foreleg as he landed in front of her. The other circled around while she batted the weapon away with the butt end of her staff and she swung her sword on his other leg just as he raised it to strike. The metal in his armor bent and he screamed, falling on his side.

Then she cried with the shock at her back, and it made her head spin, but she kicked with both hindlegs and hit something she supposed was the other wonderbolt. How did she let him hit her like that?

She teleported, reappearing a little distance away facing the opposite direction rather than turning on her hooves, just in time to see the surprised pegasus in golden armor confused at having hit nothing but air with second strike. And then her sword hit his armored head and it would be the last thing he'd see for a while.

It came as a surprise when a surge of magical energy hit Twilight and she gasped. It came from one of the airships next to Celestia's. No idea what that was, but when Skoll finally fired its cannons again her shots exploded everywhere but on their target.

Twilight stared curiously. It was a sort of repulsion field magic. Did one of the ships have a team of unicorns that cast that spell?

Another salvo on another target met the same fate. And then another. Next the airship fired its strange magical missiles, but they flew past their target, one in each direction and exploded harmlessly.

"Wow…" She whispered. It seemed that Royal Guard Thaumatoengineers had been really busy while she wasn't looking. She doubted the griffons expected that.

Then she grimaced to herself when she remembered she was on the same side as the griffons and not the Royal Guards.

The Skoll started turning while her engines seemed to speed up even more, banking to the left and she closed her gun decks. Trails of smoke flew from her sides and exploded into clouds of white smoke with lightning that drew them to the airship. Twilight noticed that griffons fighting in the Wonderbolt airship took off and flew towards it, but it didn't look like they'd make it, and they just stopped. The constant cacophony of shooting cannons didn't diminish either.

In the middle of all that, she heard Grigory yelling furiously, hovering above the whaling ship again and making paw gestures with his fingers. Then she was sure he swore when he didn't get the answer he was hopping for. He and his friends shouted at each other.

"They just left their friends behind!" Twilight gasped.

It took several minutes, and nopony bothered Twilight, probably because they were watching it too, but the airships that arrived with Princess Celestia's pursued the griffon airship, as did the Wonderbolt's and they kept firing leaving trails of smoke that persisted for some time in the slow winds.

She gasped at a bright flash when the entire right wing of the Skoll exploded and sent burning pieces everywhere, like small fiery balls falling over the grass field below. Seconds later the bang reached their ears and scared Twilight out of her trance.

Then three things happened. The Skoll started losing altitude and letting off a significant plume of black smoke, gaining more and more speed towards the ground; Celestia's ponies cheered on the airships and in the fight around her; and Grigory's girlfriend held her face and shrieked on the whaling ship, watching their airship going down.

"Oh no!" She looked frantically around to see the fight still going strong in her airship, despite that, but the griffons just lost all their wind and closest to her was Rainbow Dash, surrounded by downed Wonderbolts while she grappled with one of them and got hit with a stun prod that sprung from the vambrace of another one of them from behind. Her friend screamed and lost balance on her hindlegs.

"Rainbow!" She screamed and pushed forward with a flap of wings. Both wonderbolts turned to face her. One of them still on his hindlegs, ready to use his weapon again, but her sword cut it in half and her body slammed the pony against the wall of the private room. She wasn't very heavy, but the pegasus was lighter still. The other attacked her with a similar weapon, but she anticipated it and her staff batted his leg away for her to hit him with a magical blast that sent him spinning on the floor.

"Rainbow?!" She cried again, but her friend was out cold in the floor despite her pushing at her.

No time to reanimate her. A changeling cried and came at her with her horn shining in green magic, making a magical long bladed spear she swung at Twilight. It hit Twilight shoulder and glanced off to her head and the magical shock, more than the concussion stunned her.

Reflexively she retreated a hop and scowled at the changeling, shooting magical missiles at her hooves. The changeling skipped with a scream and that dispelled her weapon. Then she slammed on the wall, legs flailing on the air right next to Twilight with a pained and sorrowful "Ooow…"

Twilight tapped her on the forehead with the flat of her sword and she shrieked more from the scare than any damage her weapon might have done, then she jumped over the changeling.

She saw Applejack grappling with a wonderbolt, standing on her hindlegs with a rope she used to deflect this stun prod and then tied him like he was a hog. Another came at her and she got her war hammer which she shoved on the pegasus face and caused him to fall backwards. Instead of following with the hammer down on him, she jumped over him, hopping on his belly and rushing towards Rarity who found herself shoved against the floor with a ring on her horn and her enchanted sword on her side with an armored wonderbolt on top of her, holding her with a hoof until Applejack hit him like a speeding train.

Twilight meant to go help, but she was forced to defend herself from a pegasus Royal Guard in full combat barding with a closed helmet and heavier plates attacking her with his armored foredleg. She batted the attack with her sword and dodged the second spinning on her hindlegs, leaving her robes trailing behind her and brought her sword down on his leg as he overextended in another strike.

"Oow!" He screamed from inside his helmet and she stopped back on her four hooves. "Geez, Twilight! I'm trying to talk to you!"

"Flash Sentry?!" She shrieked.

"Uh…" His eyes shifted inside the helmet. "Hi babe. Princess Celestia asked me to tell you to stop… So… Uh…"

She scowled and the guard of her sword came down on his face with a clang.

With him out, she looked around to see Cadance still fighting the griffon. They both looked furious and he had cuts on his face with blood on his fur and feathers. She kicked at his face, but he held her leg and his claws almost swiped at her face. They glanced off a magical protection spell she seemed to have cast on her because her barding's was gone already. Then she charged her horn and they heard a loud bang that scared both of them. Even more when the griffon collapsed with a cry.

"I didn't do anything!" Cadance shrieked. And then again when they saw the hole in his leather armor and the sprinkled red on the floor.

"Damnit!" He grunted and Cadance charged her horn with magic again.

"Don't move! I'm going to cast a healing spell!" She squealed and Twilight was sure she was more scared than the griffon, who just chuckled at her. "Fluttershy!"

"Don't worry Princess… I've been shot more times than I can count in my paws."

Fluttershy didn't come, and while she fussed with her magic over the griffon Twilight frowned and looked around the sky, expecting to see a certain white griffon female, but couldn't find her. Maybe she was judging too fast. They were in the middle of a fight.

Then she heard Shining Armor screaming. The halberd he had been using fell from the top of the private room and he fell on his back right after it with the pieces of the railing. Spitfire jumped after him, but he kicked her hard with his hindlegs against the private room doors and she slammed on her back against it.

Not that it stopped her. She pushed against the door to lunge at him.

"Hey! Canner-bolt!" A raspy and cruel laugh distracted her and Twilight, followed by a loud shot that rang much higher than she was used to.

Spitfire fell on her back with a scream and Twilight took some time before she understood what had happened. She finally found the white griffoness sat on the lower yard of the main mast, like a stupid bird perched on it with a devious grin, looking up from the scope on her weapon.

"Give me that!" Twilight yelled at her and teleported to hover in front of her, grabbing the gun with her magic and pulling while beating her wings for leverage. The griffon didn't let go though, even if she almost lost her balance.

"Hey! Quit it!"

"Let go!" Twilight insisted. "This thing is dangerous!"

"It's a gun, grassbreath! Of course it's dangerous!"

"Your airship was downed! You're just hurting others needlessly! We have to get my airship working instead!" She still pulled at the gun and griffon screeched holding on to it.

The screaming match stopped when Applejack called Twilight from below. Collapsed on the bow, next to Rarity with a hornring, laying on her side and looking disheveled and also Spike with his arms tied behind him with his tail and wings. Their weapons nowhere to be seen and two Royal Guards in full barding watching over them.

Twilight wailed and let go, diving the distance and reaching them sword-first. The first deflected her sword with his barding on his foreleg, as she expected, then she spun her sword with a flourish in her magical grasp aiming at his armored head. But she was tired. She was too slow, and the other guard tackled her by the waist, and dropped her with his weight.

She teleported a few hooves away and hit his head with her sword before he even realized what had happened. The other stood on his hindlegs with a halberd and prepared for her attack. Then Twilight felt a presence behind her and spun cutting with her sword.

It struck an exquisitely adorned magical armor made of pure solidified golden light and white embellishments over a tall white foreleg. Her sword flew away from her grasp at the forceful magical feedback and the flash scared her. And both caused her to sit on her haunches and shake her head only to finally see Princess Celestia grinning at her.

She panicked. "Cadance! Starlight! Help!"

In her panic she teleported away, but rather than that, she found she had reappeared roughly in the same place. Inside a cute golden bird cage with a soft purple cushion.

"Oh, come on!" She whined to herself.

Celestia was about to say something when Twilight saw the glint in the scope above the griffon's weapon. It was a mere instant and the same bang from before ringed followed by Twilight's terrorized screaming even louder while covering her eyes with her wings and hooves.

And then shrieking again.

"She's fine, Twilight…" Spike mumbled with the irked sigh of a drake that's had enough of that day.

She opened her eyes to see Celestia giggling. "Thank you for the concern though."

Her golden magical aura picked up a squished lead bullet on the floor and then she turned, looking up to see the white griffoness hugging the weapon and mumbling something as insecurely as a mother determined to prove the innocence of her little baby after being caught doing wrong.

"She called for help… I just… Hum…" Her fingers strummed nervously along the gun's elegant caramel wood frame and her eyes shifted until she grinned and frowned at the same time. "I mean… I knew it wouldn't hurt you."

She giggled nervously.

"You cannot be trusted with that toy, young lady. I will take it from here." Her horn flared up and golden light yanked the weapon from the griffon. She yapped reaching futilely and almost losing her balance on the yard.

After that the Princess removed all the ammunition from that thing, which was a process Twilight didn't really understand, but even if it couldn't be that complicated, she thought it was curious that Celestia did. It struck Twilight that it was similar, but certainly different from a musket since the bullets she saw on the floor were nothing like the ammunition they used.

"Now then, may we consider this altercation resolved?" The Princess looked around at fighters on both sides that stopped on their tracks when she showed up. "Thank you kindly."

Then she turned to Twilight, who just realized she merely sat there, stupidly looking up at the tall princess from inside her cage. Of course, she did though, because Twilight had never seen her like that!

Her mane shone brightly like the sun's corona such that it hurt her eyes staring directly at her. Her body was covered in the magical armor made of golden light with white beautifying lines and the few golden pieces of her traditional regalia. Her wings, she carried open, shone with the same light and had bladed protections and she also wore a large golden crown that framed her head like a helmet that let her horn out and made a crown of six bladed spikes behind her head that made her look like the sun, especially with her mane shining like that. She even had a translucent cape of golden light.

"Hello, Twilight! I have finally caught up with you."

"Hum… Hi…" She tried grinning, but her voice broke a little too much. There was simply nothing she could do but stare away when her eyes burned, as the princess herded her with her wings to sit next to her friends and the spell that formed that armor was so complex it made Twilight's head hurt just trying to figure out the formulae for the layers of protection.

She had never done that in their sparring sessions! Twilight felt cheated!

"Kindly take care of her." The princess told the guards, turning to the others.

"Cadance! Shining!" She whispered to herself, looking for them. Chrysalis' changelings had shoved Cadance to the floor and held her before the queen. Shining and two of her pegasus sat before Luna, wearing a similar magical armor as Celestia's, but all white and silvery, with an arch above her head rather than the spikes.

Fluttershy was with Spitfire by the doors to the private room. The wondebolt seemed to be in pain, but Fluttershy wrapped her wing closed. She didn't see the others, but Royal Guards brought Starlight, the unicorn crewpony and Pinkie.

"Sorry, Twilight." Starlight sighed when they put her to sit next to her.

Ponies just gave up next to Celestia and Luna. Surrendered to the Royal Guards and Wonderbolts that accompanied them, but the griffons were still fighting, flying around the airship and on Mister Snake's rusty airship. But they seemed in a bad shape all around. She found Grigory's girlfriend cornered on the airship's bow, worryingly quiet and with quite a lot of blood on her feathers while he fought fiercely with his longsword and his big griffon friend used a heavy spear to fight off the changelings with their double-bladed weapons.

Celestia seemed more worried with ensuring nopony was too injured on Twilight's airship and dispelled the bubblegum ball, freeing the changeling inside.

Grigory looked around and he didn't seem to like what he saw. He told his big friend something and flew up. His girlfriend cried his name which sounded much more melodic in their language, properly pronounced.

"_Dity Harpiyi!_" He cried above the airships, lunging up his sword.

"Whoa!" Twilight's spine felt like she had just been hit with a lightning spell. There was powerful magic at work and it twirled around in the air like a hurricane had met a thunderstorm to the point it caused the physical wind to blow around them.

Celestia looked up at the griffon with giant surprised eyes and Luna's jaw dropped. The present griffons stared up, about as surprised as she was. Maybe they didn't expect Grigory would try to cast a spell, _a la _his father as a last-ditch effort, a desperate attempt to snatch victory from defeat?

She also had never seen Chrysalis so scared in her life. "Stop him!"

The queen cried and pointed at the griffon completely forgetting Cadance. "Stop him now!"

Chrysalis' changelings scrambled to attack. His big friend stayed with the female griffon and her jaw hanged, staring up with giant eyes as though life returned to her. The others that were too disheartened by the loss of their invincible airship stood as they could to witness.

His sword hovered in the air in front of him and shone with the luminescence of lightning. His clawed fists clenched as though he channeled some emotion with all his might and his eyes shone with the same light.

Thunder sounded around them and it stirred a strange fear in Twilight, but she couldn't tear her eyes from the griffon and could swear his claws crackled with lightning. His voice echoed and he pronounced every syllable with the intensity of a storm to end the world.

"_Aya Harpiya, matha beir, imperatrytse desh pochuymiy krahah!_"

It sounded like an eagle screaming and it echoed with cracking thunder. Magical energies, more powerful than the magical radiation from the airships' engines tensed and stretched reality, but nothing happened. Like a spell that failed, but rather than exploding from somepony's horn, its magical energies dissipated harmlessly. It sure felt like a spell though. A powerful spell that failed to connect, or something. It was difficult to understand. Different. Even more alien than the bizarre changeling magic she felt in Chrysalis' Spawning Pool.

Thus, when the magical effects ceased gravity got a hold of him again and the griffon screamed and grasped at the air, flailing, trying to grasp his sword and flapping his wings to keep from falling. His girlfriend shrieked his name again and everypony was too stunned to react.

Princess Celestia teleported next to him. She secured his paw in her hoof and grabbed his sword with her telekinetic magic. Then she teleported back to Twilight's airship and carefully let him rest on his back, with the sword right next to him.

He just laid there, staring at the sky. Twilight wasn't sure what he felt. Shock? Disbelief? Disappointment?

"_Harpiya dekesh pochyah, Greigorei… Sekesei ya._" She told him softly. She didn't hesitate or stumble upon the words.

His eyes changed ever so slightly. His stare hardened and he frowned. Celestia seemed so sad too. And everything had stopped, but Celestia finally looked away from him and turned to the others that kept staring like they watched a theater piece. It was a combination of shock and disbelief. The griffons definitively expected something and it disappointed.

Then Celestia used that voice she used when she wanted things done already. "What are you doing standing around? There is much work to be done! Find the injured on the ground and on the airship's remains! Take them to the hospital airship with the utmost urgency!"

Twilight recognized Crucible Wings inside the heavier armor, staring at her, and then at the griffon on the floor. Stunned until the Princess raised her voice. "Now!"

They resumed their tasks immediately and the Princess walked off to meet Chrysalis that didn't seem happy, but Celestia took her somewhere else. They flew and headed towards her airship.

Twilight wrapped her hooves at the bars of her cage and looked at the griffon. He had several cuts, nothing serious and they didn't seem to bother him. He was big and strong, with large and sharp claws that 'normal' griffons didn't typically have. He did have a very distinctive… 'Griffon-like' face but Twilight couldn't see what made it look so. Rugged? No, he was young. Maybe 'feral' would be a better word.

And he just laid there, but she didn't dare speak to him. In her mind's eye she pictured Emperor Grigor, maybe a giant griffon, a terrifying rugged monster screaming words charged with magic and bringing a terrible spell over his enemies. By the way things went… She didn't what he was trying to do, but it wouldn't have been pretty.

A strange dread she had never felt before crept from the back of her mind, and at the same time it kindled her curiosity. She hoped she would have the opportunity to talk to that fascinating griffon.

In the end, Cadance was right, but they never really stood a chance against Celestia, did they? Perhaps if whatever Grigory wanted to do had worked they would. It spooked Chrysalis, after all.

But she didn't dare speak to him. She didn't dare breathe too loud next to him.

Even if he had to wake up way too early, it gave him a giddy feeling, racing the big griffon across the sky under the stormy clouds. A small stream bellow brought fertility to a black soil below and the ubiquitous mountains wrapped up the picture with their mighty elegance. Discord started seeing why they liked the mountains so much. The cold wind was a bit uncomfortable to him though, used to the warm pony lands and comfortable homes during winter.

Geez… Winters must be downright cruel in that place.

Discord liked Lord Gilad a lot more than he expected and that was probably a good thing. He was meant to build a bridge, after all. Despite the silly situation with that Gwineth, things had been going wonderful on his mission. He met interesting griffons, a cute child (or cub as they called them), learned a few things that would help and actually became a bridge to build a friendship with The Lion. Flutthershy would be proud of him!

Halting to a stop in mid-flight, he listened to the voice in the wind. It was gone. For a second that intricately woven spell vanished, and the clouds above calmed themselves. The serene, but haughty and eerie voice changed to a furious cry of pure wrath. It chilled his blood and caused him to look around in surprise. Long and piercing, it echoed in the wind.

The Lion hovered next to Discord, beating his wings and waiting. Discord frowned. "Did you hear that?"

"I felt it."

Then the voice resumed and the whole spell caused its effect all over again, from tempestuous clouds to magical wind.

"What happened?" He asked Gillad as though he might know. He had the impression that he would.

"We must hurry." He did know, Discord figured, but chose not to disclose it just yet. He chose to trust the griffon. Add that Gilad seemed worried, Discord agreed.

"Let's go then."


End file.
